The Jim Rome Show - Guest Hosts

Guest Hosts

At length he announces when he is going to be "in the basement" (on vacation) and for how long. He justifies his frequent absences to the Clones by proclaiming, "I take a lot of vacation because I get a lot of vacation" (a parody of a comment made by Patrick Ewing during the 1998 NBA lockout). To ensure live content on days when Rome is absent, The Jim Rome Show is hosted by a rotating stable of guest hosts, including:

• KLAC/Fox Sports Radio radio personalities Petros Papadakis and Matt "Money" Smith. The pair, who host an afternoon show for the sports-talk radio station and Jim Rome Show affiliate, filled in for Rome on Presidents Day 2007 and during Fourth of July week that same year. They now fill at least one day each time Rome takes a week of vacation. They have also appeared on Jim Rome Is Burning.
• Comedian Jay Mohr. Mohr also occasionally calls in to Rome's show. He participated in the 2007 Smack-Off and finished in 7th place. When he appears in The Jungle, Mohr is referred to as "Slam Man". As of 2010, Mohr has become the most frequent guest host. He is now the host of a Fox Sports Radio program, Jay Mohr Sports, competing in the time slot of The Jim Rome Show.
• Pop culturists Randy and Jason Sklar (of the ESPN Classic program Cheap Seats), whose subject matters are rather random. Randy is also a frequent panel guest on Rome's ESPN program Jim Rome Is Burning. The Brothers Sklar often date themselves with their frequent discussions on 1980s athletes of professional tennis, professional wrestling and the St. Louis Cardinals. Bumper music when the Sklars host tends to be of the indie rock variety. In 2010 the Sklars became more frequent guest hosts as they launched a podcast with a similar format to their hosting of the Jim Rome Show. They call clones who are fans of theirs "sklones".
• Author and columnist John Feinstein. Feinstein's appearances are usually low-key in tone and dominated by interviews. He also appears frequently on the show as the subject of a Rome interview.
• Sportswriter Skip Bayless. When Bayless hosts, the show generally has a recurring theme, typical examples being his belief that the Ohio State Buckeyes stole the 2003 BCS Championship, his self-proclaimed addiction to Diet Mountain Dew, and his obsession with the beach volleyball scene in Top Gun (which Rome shares). Bayless also actively debates callers, as opposed to Rome, who rarely does so. Bayless is a polarizing and unpopular guest host, and many Clones call him "Skip Clueless." Rome, for his part, has no problem with Bayless and occasionally needles the Clones with the news that Bayless will be guest-hosting. Bayless has hosted the show on a less-frequent basis since joining the cast of Cold Pizza/ESPN First Take.
• Former ESPN anchor and current NFL Network personality Rich Eisen. Eisen once commented that he had always thought the show's email address was "rome@habitate.com" until he guest-hosted. (The actual address is rome@haveatake.com, but Rome tends to say "haveatake" quickly.)
• Roger Lodge, host of Blind Date and a frequent interview guest on The Jim Rome Show. Lodge is also a frequent panel guest on Rome's ESPN program Jim Rome Is Burning. On both of Jim's shows, Lodge has taken to making the guarantee to shave his head, should a specific outcome occur. This is a guarantee that Lodge has always failed to follow through on.
• Former WDFN radio personalities Mike "Stoney" Stone and Bob "Wojo" Wojnowski. The pair, who hosted an afternoon show for the Detroit sports-talk radio station and Jim Rome affiliate, filled in for Rome on July 13, 2007. Stone has also appeared occasionally as a subject of Rome interviews.
• Kansas City Star sportswriter Jason Whitlock, who has also appeared as a subject of Rome's interviews.

Former guest hosts of the show include:

• Boxing/Olympic analyst Jim Lampley. Lampley has been known to blast emailers for poor grammar and overall stupidity. Rome sometimes resets a Lampley rant in which he ridiculed the "media-driven hype" surrounding the year 2000 and how it was erroneously referred to as the beginning of the new millennium. Lampley has not hosted the show since being arrested in January 2007.
• Fox Sports Radio personality Andrew Siciliano (from Gametime Live). On May 12, 2006, while Siciliano was guest-hosting, a caller coined the term "teammateship" (referencing Barry Bonds as an example of bad "teammateship"). Andrew is referred to as "Van Whack", "Substitute Jim", or "Rome Junior" by many of the Clones, and as "Deep Dish" by Randy and Jason Sklar. Siciliano now hosts his own show with ex-Laker great Mychael Thompson on L.A's KSPN 710 (AM), which competes with the show, so he no longer has fill-in duty. However, Siciliano is a frequent panel guest on Rome's ESPN program Jim Rome Is Burning.
• Actors Jerry Ferrara and Kevin Connolly from HBO's Entourage hosted the show on August 15, 2007. The idea for Ferrara to host the show came about in an interview two weeks prior to Ferrara's guest-hosting, when Rome offered Ferrara a guest-host spot next time he goes on vacation, and Ferrara indicated his willingness to fill in as host.
• Fox Sports Radio personality Steve Czaban. He hosted several consecutive days in 2001 when Rome's son Jake was born, but no longer guest-hosts.
• Former author, journalist, and columnist Ralph Wiley also guest hosted shows for Rome before he died in 2004.