Patrick John O'Brien (born February 14, 1948) is an American author and radio host, best known for his work as a sportscaster with

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...

from 1981 to 1997, as well as his work as the anchor and host of ''

Access Hollywood ''Access Hollywood'', formerly known as ''Access'' from 2017 to 2019, is an American weekday television entertainment news program that premiered on September 9, 1996. It covers events and celebrities in the entertainment industry. It was create ...

'' from 1997 to 2004, and '' The Insider'' from 2004 to 2008. O'Brien covered six

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

, two for CBS (1992 Winter and 1994) and four for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

(2000, 2002, 2004 and 2012). He has also covered the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, and Final Four as a pregame host while at CBS. He wrote the book ''Talkin' Sports: A B.S.-er's Guide'', published in 1998, and released an autobiography, ''I'll Be Back Right After This'', in 2014.

Education

Pat O'Brien grew up in

Sioux Falls, South Dakota Sioux Falls () is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the 130th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha County and also extends into Lincoln County to the south, which continues up ...

. He attended Axtell Park Middle School before graduating from Washington High School in 1966. O'Brien received a degree in government from the

University of South Dakota The University of South Dakota (USD) is a public research university in Vermillion, South Dakota. Established by the Dakota Territory legislature in 1862, 27 years before the establishment of the state of South Dakota, USD is the flagship uni ...

(where he was a member of the

Delta Tau Delta Delta Tau Delta () is a United States-based international Greek letter college fraternity. Delta Tau Delta was founded at Bethany College, Bethany, Virginia, (now West Virginia) in 1858. The fraternity currently has around 130 collegiate chapter ...

fraternity) in 1970. He subsequently earned a master's degree in

international economics International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity from international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the international institutions that affect them. It seeks to explain the patterns and ...

from the

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of th ...

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

in Washington, D.C. O'Brien was a member of Sioux Falls area rock and roll band Dale Gregory and the Shouters, from 1964 to 1967 for which he was inducted into the South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 25, 2010. Subsequent to the Shouters, he was the lead band personality in the local band Those of Us, a compilation of the Shouters and the X-Men.

Career

Early career (1970–1981)

O'Brien started his career working for

KSOO KSOO may refer to: * KSOO (AM), a radio station (1000 AM) licensed to serve Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States * KSOO-FM, a radio station (99.1 FM) licensed to serve Lennox, South Dakota * KXRB (AM), a radio station (1140 AM) licensed to serv ...

TV-Radio in his hometown of Sioux Falls. After graduating from college in 1970, he worked as a researcher at

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

in Washington, D.C.Pat O'Brien biography
. Strategic Events International. Accessed January 2, 2010. and was a production assistant for ''

The Huntley-Brinkley Report ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. He then served as an anchor and reporter for

WMAQ-TV WMAQ-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Telemundo outlet WSNS-TV (c ...

in Chicago. In 1977, he moved to KNXT-TV (now KCBS-TV) in Los Angeles, where he earned four local Emmy Awards.

CBS Sports (1981–1997)

Pat O'Brien is perhaps best known for his sixteen-year association with

, which he joined in 1981. While at

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, O'Brien covered the Super Bowl,

, NBA Draft, NBA Finals,

Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

, the

NCAA men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

, NCAA Football Championship and the Final Four. While at CBS he hosted the short-lived (3 weeks) late night talk show ''Overtime...With Pat O'Brien''. He has also hosted VH1's ''Fairway to Heaven'' and ''Lift Ticket to Ride''. In

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

, he was a regular on ''

The NFL Today ''The NFL Today'' is an American football television program on CBS that serves as the pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL) game telecasts under the ''NFL on CBS'' brand. The program features commentary on the latest ne ...

'' with

Greg Gumbel Greg Gumbel (born May 3, 1946) is an American television sportscaster. He is best known for his various assignments for CBS Sports (most notably, the National Football League and NCAA basketball). The older brother of news and sportscaster Brya ...

Terry Bradshaw Terry Paxton Bradshaw (born September 2, 1948) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League (NFL). Since 1994, he has been a television sports analyst an ...

and

Lesley Visser Lesley Candace Visser (born September 11, 1953) is an American sportscaster, television and radio personality, and sportswriter. Visser is the first female NFL analyst on TV, and the only sportscaster in history who has worked on Final Four, ...

Entertainment anchor (1997–2008)

From 1997 to 2004 he was the co-host of ''

''. His co-hosts included

Giselle Fernandez ''Giselle'' (; ), originally titled ''Giselle, ou les Wilis'' (, ''Giselle, or The Wilis''), is a romantic ballet (" ballet-pantomime") in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, ...

until 1999, and then

Nancy O'Dell Nancy O'Dell (born Nancy Evelyn Humphries; 1966) is an American television host and entertainment journalist. She served as co-anchor of the syndicated entertainment news show ''Entertainment Tonight'' from January 3, 2011, to August 2, 2019. E ...

through 2004. He became the lead host of the '' Entertainment Tonight'' spin-off '' The Insider'' from its inception in 2004 until 2008.

Fox Sports Radio (2010–2013)

On August 18, 2010, O'Brien joined Steve Hartman and Vic "The Brick" Jacobs on the ''Loose Cannons'' show. Subsequently, Vic left the show and it was renamed '' Primetime'' on Fox Sports Radio, which could be heard from 3 p.m. to 7 pm. E.S.T. Throughout O'Brien's show, he was often condescending about a Los Angeles-based newspaper sports writer, Tom Hoffarth. A memo sent to some people at Sherman Oaks-based Fox Sports Radio with a new lineup for early 2014, changes that left Pat O'Brien and Steve Hartman without a show.

Other appearances

In 2000, O'Brien returned to the sports world when he covered the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney for

, appearing on the

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

channel. He also covered the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

, Utah appearing on

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...

. He also anchored the 2004 Games in Athens,

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

for NBC, this time appearing on both the Network and

, and in 2012 anchors the

tennis tournament List of current and past men's and women's tennis tournaments. Criteria for inclusion: *The tournament is notable enough to have its own article on Wikipedia *Historic tournaments are included if notability can be established by reliable third par ...

coverage which will be carried on

Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels *Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 *Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing company ...

. In addition to the Olympics, he also hosted the late night edition of the 2006 U.S. Open Tennis Championships for

which was his return to CBS after a 9-year hiatus. In 2001, O'Brien had a cameo appearance in

P. Diddy Sean Combs (born Sean John Combs; November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puffy, or Diddy, is an American rapper, actor, record producer, and record executive. Born in New York City, he worked as a talent directo ...

's ''

Bad Boy For Life "Bad Boy for Life" is a song by American rappers P. Diddy, Black Rob and Mark Curry, featured on Diddy's 2001 third album '' The Saga Continues...''. Produced by Megahertz (Dorsey Wesley), it was released as the second single from the album in ...

'' music video. In early 2003, Pat O'Brien filled in for

Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio personality, who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40''. He was the first actor to voice No ...

three times on Kasem's radio programs '' American Top 40'' and ''American Top 20'', once in January, once in February, and once in March when Kasem took vacation time. O'Brien also voice-acted in an episode of ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, sup ...

'' entitled "Mr. Motivation". His voice is used for a doll named "Mr. Motivation". O'Brien has been parodied or targeted on shows like ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...

'', '' Home Movies'', ''

The Howard Stern Show ''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The show has aired on Howard 100 a ...

'', '' South Park'', ''

The Soup ''The Soup'' is an American television series that aired weekly on E! from July 1, 2004, until December 18, 2015 as a revamped version of '' Talk Soup'' that focused on recaps of various popular culture and television moments of the week. The ...

'', ''

Late Night with Conan O'Brien ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien. NBC aired 2,725 episodes from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and music ...

'', ''

Best Week Ever ''Best Week Ever'' is an American comedy series created and executive produced by Fred Graver. The series originally aired from January 23, 2004, to June 12, 2009, on VH1.Harris, Scott"VH1 Cancels 'Best Week Ever'". ''Inside TV''. January 13, 2 ...

'', '' The Adam Carolla Show'', ''The

Opie and Anthony ''Opie and Anthony'' was an American radio show hosted by Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia that aired from March 1995 to July 2014, with comedian Jim Norton serving as third mic from 2001. The show originated in 1994 when Cumia took part in ...

Show'', ''

The Boondocks Boondocks are remote, usually brushy areas. Boondocks may also refer to: * The Boondocks (band), an Estonian rock band * ''The Boondocks'' (comic strip), a comic strip by Aaron McGruder ** ''The Boondocks'' (2005 TV series), the television ser ...

'', '' Cheap Seats'', ''

The Showbiz Show with David Spade ''The Showbiz Show with David Spade'' was a weekly television program on Comedy Central that starred comedian David Spade. It is a comedic parody of celebrity news programs such as ''Entertainment Tonight'' and ''Access Hollywood''. The show was d ...

'', and by Jimmy Fallon on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...

''. He was also the subject of a ''

TV Funhouse ''Saturday TV Funhouse'' is a segment on NBC's ''Saturday Night Live'' featuring cartoons created by ''SNL'' writer Robert Smigel. 101 "TV Funhouse" segments aired on ''SNL'' between 1996 and 2008, with one further segment airing in 2011. It also ...

'' cartoon by

Robert Smigel Robert Smigel (born February 7, 1960) is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, producer, and puppeteer, known for his ''Saturday Night Live'' " TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic D ...

. In 2005, O'Brien appeared on the

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

program '' Robot Chicken'', lampooning himself and his hosting of ''The Insider''. He is currently featured on the Adult Swim show ''

Hot Package ''Hot Package'' is an Adult Swim entertainment variety show, created by Derrick Beckles. The show parodies network entertainment shows such as '' Entertainment Tonight'' and ''Access Hollywood''. Instead of sourcing its news from real celebrities ...

''. O'Brien made a cameo appearance in the 1998 comedy ''

BASEketball ''BASEketball'' is a 1998 American sports comedy film co-written and directed by David Zucker and starring ''South Park'' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with Yasmine Bleeth, Jenny McCarthy, Robert Vaughn, Ernest Borgnine, and Dian B ...

'' as himself.

Personal life

Family

In August 2004, O'Brien filed for divorce from Linda, his wife of three decades. They have a son named Sean. In July 2008, O'Brien announced his engagement to his girlfriend of five years, Betsy Hoyt Stephens, a clothing and accessories designer. O'Brien enrolled at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

for addiction studies in 2014.

Alcoholism and voice-mail episode

On March 20, 2005, O'Brien issued a written statement announcing that he had been admitted to a rehabilitation facility for alcoholism. Around the announcement of O'Brien entering rehabilitation, a string of sexually graphic voice-mail messages that contained O'Brien's voice started to make the rounds, particularly within the Internet community and radio programs '' The Bubba the Love Sponge Show'', ''

The Wendy Williams Experience ''The Wendy Williams Experience'' is an American reality television series that aired on VH1 from October 20, 2006, to December 9, 2006. It chronicles Wendy Williams as she hosts her radio show on (WBLS, 107.5 WBLS) with Charlamagne Tha God, Char ...

'', ''

'' and ''

The Opie and Anthony Show ''Opie and Anthony'' was an American radio show hosted by Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia that aired from March 1995 to July 2014, with comedian Jim Norton serving as third mic from 2001. The show originated in 1994 when Cumia took part in ...

''. The

drunk dialing Drunk dialing refers to an intoxicated person making phone calls that they would not likely make if sober, often a lonely individual calling former or current love interests. In Kurt Vonnegut's 1969 novel ''Slaughterhouse-Five'', the main charac ...

incident consisted primarily of O'Brien, in a state of arousal, repeatedly recording sexually graphic messages, complete with suggestions of drug use, on the cellular

voicemail A voicemail system (also known as voice message or voice bank) is a computer-based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to ind ...

box of a woman who remains anonymous. On May 4, 2005, O'Brien was interviewed by talk show therapist

Phil McGraw Phillip Calvin McGraw (born September 1, 1950), better known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality and author best known for hosting the talk show ''Dr. Phil''. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased renew ...

, which was featured during a prime time special on

. He disclosed the reasons behind his alcohol and drug abuse since the 1960s, as well as his experiences during rehabilitation. O'Brien also expressed remorse for the voice-mail incident and apologized for what his substance abuse did to his family. O'Brien returned to '' The Insider'' the next day, and reports said that O'Brien had been signed to a new deal as host of the show. On February 8, 2008, it was reported that O'Brien reentered rehabilitation and Donny Osmond would be "filling in" as the co-host of ''The Insider'' alongside

Lara Spencer Lara Christine Von Seelen (known professionally as Lara Spencer; born June 19, 1969) is an American television presenter. She is best known for being the co-anchor for ABC's ''Good Morning America''. She is also a correspondent for ''Nightline ...

. On March 5, 2008, it was reported that O'Brien had been removed from ''The Insider'', with Osmond taking his place. However, a month later O'Brien resumed his hosting duties after Osmond declined to take a permanent hosting role. On September 18, 2008, O'Brien was officially fired from ''The Insider'' for writing a controversial e-mail to coworkers which insulted Spencer, his replacement as

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

References

External links

*
Pat O'Brien sexual harassment answering machine messages
ScribeMedia.org. November 8, 2006. , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Pat 1948 births American infotainers American male journalists American Lutherans American radio personalities American television reporters and correspondents Television anchors from Chicago College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies alumni Living people Television anchors from Los Angeles Major League Baseball broadcasters National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers Olympic Games broadcasters Writers from Sioux Falls, South Dakota Tennis commentators American autobiographers