ESPN has started this new thing where PTI airs in its normal time slot from 5:30 to 6 PM, but instead of ending the show at 6, Wilbon says, “See you in six minutes.” Then SportsCenter starts, recaps the latest big thing, previews the 90 (ugh) minute show, then says, “Coming up after the break, PTI.”

So at about 6:12 we see the last two minutes of PTI. Stat Boy actually points out mistakes before 6 PM. I haven’t seen the 6:30 ESPNews replay of PTI, but I’m curious to see how it ends there. Perhaps the final two minutes are just tacked on the end of the first thirty.

I never published my massive ESPN post, but it’s still saved and I still think about it sometimes. In it, I mention how basically every show on ESPN at one time or another has tried to emulate PTI, most noticeably SportsCenter. I did not enjoy when they brought in people like Mitch Albom and Dan LeBatard to give op-ed pieces. I don’t think anyone else did, either, or they would have stuck around. There used to be head-to-head stuff on specific sports, but “Fact or Fiction” seems to have evolved out of that, which is much less confrontational but still entertaining to a point.

Moving the final two minutes of PTI to 6:12 appears to be a very weak attempt by ESPN to get people to watch ninety minutes of SportsCenter. At 6:14 I turned the channel.