{"id":312710,"date":"2026-06-19T04:40:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T04:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/312710\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T04:40:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T04:40:27","slug":"cote-end-of-an-era-le-batard-drops-stugotz-from-shows-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/312710\/","title":{"rendered":"Cote: End of an era: Le Batard drops Stugotz from show\u2019s name"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz is no more.<\/p>\n

After more than 20 years, the Miami-based show will have a new name beginning on Monday. This might not surprise ardent, longtime fans who may have seen it coming, but it still likely hit home as the end of an era when the announcement was made on-air midday Thursday.<\/p>\n

No more \u201cwith Stugotz.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now, simply: The Dan Le Batard Show.<\/p>\n

Longtime co-host Jon \u201cStugotz\u201d Weiner has not appeared on the show in just over a year, but his name had remained on the show\u2019s title … until now. Weiner left Le Batard to start his own Stugotz And Company podcast as part of a newly formed Stugotz Podcast Network. The show, a live, daily afternoon program on Fox Sports Radio, debuted January 19, 2026.<\/p>\n

Le Batard revealed the news to his show\u2019s crew and staff after Wednesday\u2019s recording, when, subtly, the colorful imaging on the studio walls no longer included Stugotz\u2019s likeness or name. The change was announced on-air to listeners and viewers in a five-minute address by Le Batard on Thursday, and the rebranding will be introduced and officially take effect on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is many months overdue, but I\u2019m here to announce that Stugotz\u2019s name is coming off the show, unfortunately,\u201d Le Batard told his legions of loyal show fans. \u201cWe remain a loud, vibrant, colorful thing, but our imaging has gone stale in no longer reflecting the show in its current form, so it\u2019ll be different when we return to work on Monday with the knowledge that, wherever there is pain, there is also an invitation to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stugotz put out a special episode of his own show Thursday following Le Batard\u2019s announcement. The episode was two minutes long. A cohost asked if he had any comment. He said, \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Le Batard admitted the delay in removing Stugotz\u2019s name and the \u201csilence surrounding it\u201d happened because of behind-the-scenes efforts to reunite with Stugotz — a possibility that still exists, LeBatard still believes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t the correct way to say goodbye after more than two decades, so he and I will keep trying to figure out a reunion,\u201d Le Batard said. \u201cI remain hopeful he\u2019ll continue to be a part of what we\u2019re doing eventually, and know he\u2019ll always be welcome, but we are not now what we once were. And pretending otherwise isn\u2019t loyalty, it\u2019s denial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Le Batard and Stugotz\u2019s show left ESPN in January 2021 after a long run and went independent as Le Batard and former ESPN president John Skipper founded Meadowlark Media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to fathom that we now have a national media company in the heart of my hometown \u2013 a stable media thing in the most unstable media climate of my lifetime,\u201d Le Batard told listeners. \u201c[It is] 100 percent independent, a safe creative space for people to keep creating, inventing, pushing. We\u2019re bigger than we\u2019ve ever been after leaving the Worldwide Leader in Sports, available in more places [and] reaching more people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The affiliated Pablo Torre Finds Out show, based in Meadowlark\u2019s New York studio, recently won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative work, which, Le Batard said, \u201clit a fire across every corner of this company to look hard at what we\u2019re making and make it better, this show included.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meadowlark\u2019s flagship daily Le Batard Show remains massively popular, consistently ranked top-five nationally on Apple Podcasts\u2019 charts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is such an intimate thing we do every day, living inside your head,\u201d Le Batard told fans. \u201cSome of you have been with us 10, 20 years. I don\u2019t have a lot of relationships like that in my life. You have a lot of entertainment options … and I\u2019m guessing you don\u2019t have a lot of entertainment relationships that require the investment this one does. So we\u2019re in a committed relationship, you and us, and I know that comes with expectations and responsibilities. But … the moment you stop growing together is the moment you start growing apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Le Batard continued: \u201cThe most consistent thing about our show hasn\u2019t been how or when or why people leave. The most consistent thing about our show is that, somehow, you stay, no matter the storm. We\u2019ve changed studios three times. We\u2019ve changed executive producers four. Some of you have been with us long enough to remember a time when the producers didn\u2019t speak at all. There has been upheaval all around us for more than twenty years, most of it concealed in the name of protecting the laughter. I\u2019d argue it is very rare to endure in something as competitive as entertainment this long without it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those that want this show to feel like it always has, familiar and comfortable as your favorite chair \u2026 I\u2019m afraid this is where our drift begins,\u201d Le Batard concluded. \u201cThe single surest way to destroy anything or anyone you care about is to stop building. Change is uncomfortable, yes, especially in a medium as intimate as this one, but change is also something required in any kind of expansion. So, yes, we will look different on Monday because we are different. Because, come what may, no matter how hard, no matter the day, year, or decade, different is what we\u2019re always aspiring to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 12:00 PM.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Greg Cote is a Miami Herald sports columnist who in 2025 won a first-place Green Eyeshade award in Sports Commentary and has finished top 10 in column writing by the Associated Press Sports Editors on multiple occasions. Greg also hosts The Greg Cote Show podcast and appears regularly on The Dan LeBatard Show With Stugotz.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz is no more. After more than 20 years, the Miami-based show…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-312710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}