Mike Francesa inadvertently scolds staff during live broadcast: ‘This is going to go viral’

Mike Francesa has gone viral for inadvertently scolding his staff during a live episode of his BetRivers podcast. In the clip, which has been making rounds on the internet, the famed radio host “yells” at his crew for apparently providing him with wrong information about the Big East tournament. The 70-year-old had a heated exchange for several minutes before realising he was on air.

Mike Francesa scolds his staff without realising he was on air. Watch

“What were you guys talking about? Because I heard it in my headset,” Francesa said, according to the clip (shared by @BackAftaThis), which has garnered nearly 600,000 views on X. As the podcaster spoke over his headset, it was unclear what his staff said.

“One of you guys just said that St. John’s has won the Big East Tournament. They have not won the title yet. You win the title tomorrow night,” the radio host went on as he seemingly tried to get to the bottom of the situation.

Several minutes into the one-sided exchange, Francesa said, “No, we’ll start over again.” “We broke off the air, didn’t we?” he asked before being alerted that he was live the whole time. “We’re live? This was all on the air, me just yelling at you guys?” he asked with surprise.

“What? You gotta be kidding me. You guys have got to be kidding me,” Francesa went on as he appeared to be frustrated about his on-air gaffe. However, he kept his cool and apologised for his “outburst” while acknowledging the fact that he would go “viral” for it.

“All right, I apologize for that outburst, okay, folks? I didn’t realize we were live, I thought we were taping this, okay? That’s my mistake, I didn’t realize that. Now … so this is going to go viral now because I yelled at you guys, you realize that?” Francesa said.