Frank Isola comments on Michael Wilbon naming him preferred 'PTI' co-host when Tony Kornheiser retires

The show's simple format remains largely the same, as do its two co-hosts.ESPN has had little reason to tweak the format or cast.

That is unlikely to change while Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon remain.Sources tell OutKick that the co-hosts signed new three-year deals earlier this year, with the expectation that both will fulfill their contracts.Still, both have made more than enough money to walk away at any time of their own accord.

Kornheiser is 78 years old.Wilbon turns 68 in November.Wilbon, who is 10 years younger than Kornheiser, was asked by Awful Announcing this week whether he has pondered hosting the show if Kornheiser retires before him."We do, because we do," Wilbon said when asked if he's considered continuing the show without his long-time partners.

"With substitutes all along the whole 24 years.Could I see doing a show with Frank Isola, who I do the show mostly with now when Tony’s out? Yeah, I could do that.

And I think Frank is like Tony and me, and I say that as a point of inclusion, not for anybody to read anything into it.PTI is Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon.

That’s what PTI is.But Frank is like the last of the Mohicans."ESPN's sports talk show "Pardon the Interruption" hosts Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser during a taping at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill., on Friday, Nov.

16, 2018.(Tribune News Service via Getty Images)MICHAEL WILBON OPENS UP TO OUTKICK ABOUT LEBRON JAMES, STEPHEN A.

SMITH, WINDHORST, & MOREFor background, I've had the opportunity to interview Wilbon on several occasions.He first told me roughly eight years ago that Frank Isola, a former newspaper writer, was his preferred co-host if the show continued without Kornheiser.What's interesting is that Kornheiser and Wilbon have been doing "PTI" long enough to outlast several of the people once viewed as logical successors.Jason Whitlock and Dan Le Batard were once regular fill-in hosts and had relationships with "PTI" showrunner Erik Rydholm.

Kornheis...