Dave Portnoy Cancels 'Barstool Radio' Amid Contributor Drama
Dave Portnoy abruptly announced on Monday that he was canceling Barstool Radio, one of the media company's flagship shows, due to issues with hosts Kelly Keegs and Francis Ellis; only to reverse course and name replacements a day later. And the drama stemmed from a beef between Keegs and another part-time Barstool Sports contributor, a teacher who blogs under the name Ohio's Tate.
It all started last Friday, when Tate penned a blog post titled "I'm Sick And Tired Of Lazy Barstool Employees," attacking Keegs over her perceived lack of work ethic. Among his gripes, Tate accused Keegs of not coming into the office on Fridays—who by her own admission, said that she didn't feel like putting on makeup to leave the house—choosing instead to blog from home. He then tallied Keegs' Friday blog posts over the course of several weeks and found that she rarely posted on Fridays.
For her part, Keegs fired back in a dueling blog post, outlining all of the work she does in addition to hosting the show to earn her "mid-five figure" salary. As Keegs explained in the post, she and Ellis only just took over the reigns of Barstool Radio earlier this month and were still finding their footing.
However, the issue that led to the pair's ousting stemmed from the Monday episode of their show, in which they declined to mention the feud on-air, and instead talked about Taylor Swift's appearance at the Chiefs-Ravens game on Sunday.
Watching Travis Kelce celebrate a Super Bowl Trip with Taylor Swift yesterday was very wholesome pic.twitter.com/JXFtwHcZgF
— Barstool Radio (@BarstoolRadio) January 29, 2024
This led to yet another blog post from a third contributor, unrelated to the drama, who demanded to know why Keegs didn't bring up the beef on the show. And, as it turns out, this was enough to finally get the attention of Portnoy, who evidently agreed, canceling the show "until further notice." On Tuesday, the 46-year-old announced on X that, at least for now, he will take over the time slot with fellow Barstool personalities Kirk Minihane and and Ryan Whitney.
"All parties have committed to 42 weeks a year or until somebody quits the company," Portnoy wrote, adding in a follow-up post that the new show will air live at 11:30 a.m. on Mondays.
Breaking - A new once a week Barstool Radio/DPS show will be launching soon hosted by @kirkmin with myself and @ryanwhitney6
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) January 30, 2024
All parties have committed to 42 weeks a year or until somebody quits the company.
The unnamed @kirkmin @ryanwhitney6 @stoolpresidente show will air live at 11:30am est on Mondays
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) January 30, 2024
In the latest episode of his Barstool Rundown podcast, Portnoy elaborated on his decision, calling Keegs and Ellis "the wrong people" for the job and told them to go back to blogging.
"I don’t know if Kelly Keegs was joking about makeup and not being here on Fridays. I didn’t even know she doesn’t show up on Fridays," Portnoy explained. "She just does not blog from home, so canceled. Those two aren’t cut out for it … Go back to blogging or doing whatever. You’re not cut out for Barstool Radio, you’ll never be back on it. You’re out."
Portnoy and Keegs also took shots at each other on social media following the initial announcement.
"Sad. I wanted to turn Barstool Radio into something fun and positive for us all," Keegs posted. "Everyone else just wants to stay at each other’s throats nonstop. I’m not that girl. I’ve got one weekly fight in me, at best." In response, Portnoy said the post was in the "top three most delusional tweets I've ever seen."
In honor of being fair to both sexes at Barstool I must say this is top 3 most delusional tweets I've ever seen and I don't know what the other 2 are off the top of my head https://t.co/csAL7Lq37r
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) January 29, 2024
"Nothing else I can say," Keegs wrote on Monday evening, in her apparent final say in the matter. "The world needs ditch diggers too I guess."
Nothing else I can say. The world needs ditch diggers too I guess https://t.co/dfvdMuuXUB
— Kelly Keegs (@kellykeegs) January 30, 2024