Dan Le Batard finds it ‘deeply offensive’ Craig Carton got FS1 gig: ‘Awful industry’
Dan Le Batard takes offense to Craig Carton’s career resurgence.
Or, more specifically, what it says about his profession.
Carton is leaving WFAN next month to solely do his Fox Sports 1 television show “The Carton Show” full-time for a seven-figure salary, The Post’s Andrew Marchand reported.
“As it relates to our sorry sad sack, awful industry that employs people – who are largely interchangeable – the idea that Fox would give a convicted felon a promotion when that opportunity would never go, in my history doing this, to somebody who isn’t white, is such an indictment of everything around me that I find it deeply offensive about our industry,” Le Batard said on his “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz.”
FS1 gave Carton, 54, the morning show last September, and he had been doing both the radio and television gigs since.
The looming move marks the end of a successful return to WFAN for the polarizing Carton after he left the network in scandal.
The co-host of WFAN’s highly-rated “Boomer and Carton” along with ex-NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, Carton was forced to resign in 2017 after he was convicted of fraud.
Carton served a little over one year in federal prison for misappropriating funds — that were given to him to buy concert tickets — to pay off large gambling debts.
WFAN gave him a second chance and brought him back in 2020, pairing him with Evan Roberts in the highly-competitive afternoon drive slot where the network had struggled and fallen behind rival Michael Kay on ESPN after Mike Francesa retired.
Carton’s return has been a huge success for WFAN, as “Carton and Roberts” consistently lapped “The Michael Kay Show” atop the afternoon drive ratings.
That success paved the way for FS1 to come calling, and with the network’s blessing, for Carton to now leave WFAN.
“It’s just not something that would happen in many other places,” Le Batard said. “And it’s not something certainly that would happen when somebody was a convicted felon and not a white person. It’s just not anything that would have any precedent in this business.”
After rising to prominence with ESPN, Le Batard, 54, left the network in 2021 and founded Meadowlark Media, which platforms “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz.”
Carton’s last show is set for June 30.
“I don’t know if it bothers the audience at large, but it just speaks so ill of what is our industry,” Le Batard said.