Kathryn Tappen becomes latest NBC Golf exit

The winter of change for NBC Golf continues.

Kathryn Tappen, the interviewer and host, is not going to be returning to NBC’s golf protection in 2023, in keeping with a report from Geoff Shackelford’s Quadrilateral newsletter. She has been concerned with the community’s golf protection for lower than a yr, working as lead interviewer at a few of NBC Golf’s greatest occasions in 2022, together with the U.S. Open, Open Championship and Presidents Cup.

Tappen, who joined the community’s golf protection in 2022 after years as a soccer and hockey reporter and host, can be succeeded by remaining members of NBC’s golf crew, together with longtime interviewer/hosts Cara Banks and Damon Hack. She marks the latest exit in a tumultuous winter for NBC’s golf broadcast, which has additionally parted methods with longtime analysts Gary Koch and Roger Maltbie in a broad reshuffling of the community’s on-air product.

Tappen’s exit comes at a time of budgetary constraint at NBC, which has already slashed jobs in its sports activities division and is anticipated to bear a sequence of layoffs within the new yr. Earlier this yr, Bloomberg reported that Comcast — NBC’s mother or father firm — is looking for to chop some $1 billion from the budgets of NBCUniversal’s TV networks in an effort to boost extra money for different elements of its enterprise. Golf Channel, which can be owned by NBC, underwent vital layoffs as lately as 2019, when executives moved the community from its Orlando headquarters to Stamford, Conn.

While NBC’s PGA Tour and USGA rights offers symbolize greater than $500 million in outgoing prices yearly, neither contract is believed to be a loss-lender for the community, which has benefitted from passthrough promoting revenues and comparatively robust scores along with a good local weather for dwell sports activities broadcasts. Further, NBC’s latest settlement with the PGA Tour stipulates that the Tour cowl nearly all of week-to-week manufacturing bills.

Still, it has been an odd golf “offseason” for NBC, which has not historically undergone as a lot on-air roster shuffling as we’ve seen already in 2022. It has not been reported if every other on-air figures is not going to be returning to the community in 2023, although a handful of additives have already been named. Last week, Golfweek reported that Smylie Kaufman, Curt Byrum and Brad Faxon are anticipated to hitch the community’s golf protection in 2023.

James Colgan

Golf.com Editor

James Colgan is an assistant editor at GOLF, contributing tales for the web site and journal. He writes the Hot Mic, GOLF’s weekly media column, and makes use of his broadcast expertise throughout the model’s social media and video platforms. A 2019 graduate of Syracuse University, James — and evidently, his golf sport — remains to be defrosting from 4 years within the snow. Prior to becoming a member of GOLF, James was a caddie scholarship recipient (and astute looper) on Long Island, the place he’s from. He might be reached at james.colgan@golf.com.