In the wake of the revelation that longtime CBS golf broadcasters Peter Kostis and Gary McCord would not have their contracts renewed, Kostis has not spoken publicly about it, other than to offer a statement that expressed his thanks to the many people he worked alongside over the course of his near-30 year career.
But on Wednesday, ScoreGolf’s Rick Young published an interview he conducted with Kostis in the wake of Kostis’ CBS dismissal, and, Kostis opened up about the disappointment he’s feeling with the network, as well as the reasons he believes are behind his firing.
Like McCord, Kostis said would have liked to have the opportunity to say a proper goodbye to fans and colleagues. “I’m surprised Gary and I didn’t get the same loyalty other announcers have received who have worked for CBS for a long time,” Kostis told Young. “That’s my biggest surprise in this whole thing. I wasn’t sure if I was going to work beyond this current television contract (2021) but it would have been nice to have a year to go out and say goodbye to fans, say goodbye to sponsors, friends we’ve met in different locations. I thought it was a little bit disrespectful.”
As to the reasoning behind the network’s personnel changes, Kostis said he can only speculate, and hasn’t been given any specifics. “All we’ve really heard is, ‘We think it’s time, we need a change, things were stale,’” Kostis said. “What was stale? ‘Well, the telecasts.’ Why is this the time now? ‘Well, it just is.’ They haven’t really given us any answers whatsoever on why we were let go.
“There’s a fine line between familiarity and staleness,” Kostis continued. “What we’ve been hearing over and over from fans since this happened is, ‘You guys are the voices of my weekends watching golf and we’ve grown to love it.’ There’s a familiarity for the viewers with the CBS team. Having said that, I don’t think it was the announcers that were stale. I believe the production has suffered over the last few years. That’s all I’m going to say. I’ll just leave it at that.”
