By Max Feinblatt (JMC '11)

Interning at Pardon the Interruption (the ESPN show) is a fun experience and a great way to cap off my schooling at The George Washington University. The show essentially pits two experienced sportswriters against each other to bicker and quarrel over the main sports issues of the day. It airs weekdays on ESPN at 5:30 p.m., later at night on ESPN2 as well as online.

Senior Max Feinblatt inside the studio at "Pardon the Interruption"

I intern on Thursdays and Fridays and I assist with several production tasks. I usually spend the bulk of the mornings going around the internet to find stories that might serve as good topics on the show. The majority of my afternoons consist of cutting highlights to be used on the show and assisting the associate producers to time out the lengths of video we need to use for each segment. In between, I talk with the main producers and the hosts of the show in order to hash out some of their arguments and to provide any relevant information and statistics.

While I have interned at Westwood One Radio in New York City, this internship is more hands-on and at the end of each day I feel like I’ve actually done something to contribute to the outcome of the program.

This internship is a great out-of-the-classroom gig because I get to use some of the tools I’ve honed in school while adding my own knowledge to the mix. Aside from that, it’s more or less a dream to be interning for one of my favorite television shows. It’s really cool just to be able to come in, sit down and hear the shrewd thoughts that these sportswriters have about today’s major sports topics. It’s interesting because sometimes their opinions will differ from mine, and I have the opportunity to converse with them as I see fit.

The producers are all as nice as can be, and I simply love the fact that I can concentrate on sports all day – something that would take up a lot of my time anyway even without the internship – and use my knowledge and resources to help create the final outcome of Pardon the Interruption. Overall, I am really enjoying my time there and I am thankful that being in the nation’s capital has allowed me to capitalize on this opportunity (no pun intended). Hopefully this experience helps propels me to perhaps one day be in the host’s seat.