'Nobody replaces a legend': Clay Travis speaks about stepping into the big shoes of Rush Limbaugh as he pledges to take on 'cataclysmically ridiculous' cancel culture in the radio host's old slot
Clay Travis, the lawyer-turned-sports journalist who - with Buck Sexton - is taking over the late Rush Limbaugh's three-hour radio slot, spoke about his excitement for the new role on Thursday.
Travis, 42, appeared on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show where he said he and Sexton are 'not replacement for Rush Limbaugh' who died in February from lung cancer at the age of 70.
The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show will be broadcast on hundreds of stations across the country starting June 21.
'I don't think you could be nervous about stepping in. Buck and I are not replacements for Rush Limbaugh because nobody replaces a legend,' Travis said.
'But what you can do is continue the fight. You know this because you do it every night. There is so much insanity going on in this country right now.'
Clay Travis, the lawyer-turned-sports journalist who is taking over the late Rush Limbaugh's three-hour radio slot, spoke about his excitement for the new role on Thursday
Travis told Carlson that the show will combat cancel culture and politics, which he said has spiraled 'into the cataclysmically ridiculous'
Buck Sexton, 40, is an ex-CIA and New York police officer who is also co-hosting the show
Travis told Carlson that the show will combat cancel culture and politics, which he said has spiraled 'into the cataclysmically ridiculous.'
'I'm excited finally to be picking up a sword and just and be able to swing back every single day at all the ignoramuses out there and the idiots and the nincompoops,' Travis said.
He added: 'I think a huge number of people out there who worry every time they get on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram and want to share their opinion and then think, 'Is it worth it? Am I going to end up losing my job over this?''
'I think you do and I think certainly we will speak for a lot of people who don't feel like they can speak,' he continued.
Carlson then asked Travis for his reaction to a recent Dear Prudence column in Slate, in which a woman said her husband wouldn't take his mask off for sex.
Carlson asked: 'How many Slate readers do you imagine can related?'
'Probably far too many, Tucker. Not too many Fox News viewers, I could imagine,' Travis responded.
'If the woman had any sense at all, she would leave her husband. If you are masking up at this point, like why do you want to be with such an emasculated loser and be betrothed to him for the rest of your life? I would lose my mind if I were this woman.'
Conservative radio hosts Clay Travis (at left) and Buck Sexton (right) will be taking Rush Limbaugh's time slot on Premiere Networks the distributor of Limbaugh's show
Limbaugh was a talk radio staple for more than 30 years. At its peak, the Rush Limbaugh Show reached an more than 15 million listeners
The day after revealing he had cancer, Limbaugh was invited by President Trump to attend his State of the Union where he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He is pictured alongside his wife Kathryn and First Lady Melania Trump
Travis then joked that he was about to go to dinner with his wife and that he should 'put on four masks just to be safe' so he doesn't manage 'to impinge on anyone.'
'It has moved beyond the theater of the absurd to just a level of mindlessness. The party of science is now embracing fundamentally ant-science beliefs with no, no, no legitimate basis in reality, Tucker. It's mindless, banal insanity,' Travis said.
He added: 'You've seen people, as all of the mask mandates have thankfully finally come falling down, you thought there would be a great mass of people running out into the streets to have a great deal of fun.'
Travis claimed that masks have 'become the security blanket of many left wingers.'
'They need to have the mask on because it gives them an identity. It is a security bucket for their life. It's absolutely ridiculous and absurd,' he said.
Travis founded the sports website Outkick.com while Sexton, 40, is an ex-CIA and New York police officer.
At one stage, conservative commentator Dan Bongino was thought to be the front-runner, but now he will host his own show to compete directly with Travis & Sexton.
Limbaugh, left, died from lung cancer in mid-February at the age of 70
Former President Donald Trump, left, and Rush Limbaugh, right, are pictured together
Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, became a popular commentator on Fox News Channel, featured frequently on Sean Hannity's show.
Although he's starting with slots on Cumulus Media-owned stations in some big cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Washington, DC, it's not immediately clear in which markets Bongino will be heard.
Meanwhile, Travis & Sexton have been tapped by the iHeartRadio to broadcast their show, which will be distributed by Premiere Networks and heard on roughly 600 radio stations across the country.
Conservative commentator Dan Bongino will present his own show in the same time slot on some Cumulus Media-owned stations in big cities across the U.S.
It gives the show a significantly wider distribution footprint than its rivals at networks like Cumulus Westwood One.
Travis blogged about the upcoming show on his sports website which he is believed to be in the process of selling to Fox Corp.
'I've always said that sports should be an escape from politics, but, increasingly, sports became politics,' he said.
'No one ever replaces a legend, and Rush Limbaugh is the most influential and listened to radio voice across multiple generations,' Travis continued.
'But the battles Rush fought aren't ending. If anything, they're just becoming more intense. And I think intense and rigorous and intelligent debate has never been more important in this country than it is right now.'
He will be joined by Sexton who would often appear as a guest on Limbaugh’s show and also had a three-hour evening weekday talk radio show also on iHeartRadio called the Buck Sexton Show.
'Needless to say, I couldn't be more excited,' Sexton tweeted.
He said to the Wall Street Journal: 'We're going to bring the perspective of two guys who see a country they're deeply worried about, and a massive audience that needs people who will speak for them.'
Julie Talbott, president of iHeartMedia's Premiere Networks, emphasized that this was not meant to be a replacement for Limbaugh.
'We're going to have an evolution of the show with fresh voices—those that grew up on Rush and admired him,' she said.
Travis thanked Talbott for the opportunity while appearing on Carlson's show.
Limbaugh was a talk radio staple for more than 30 years. He was first syndicated in 1988. and at its peak, the Rush Limbaugh Show reached more than 15 million listeners.
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