WATCH: Wife Joke Leads to Awkward On-Air Moment on ESPN

Mike Windle_Getty Images for ESPN
Mike Windle/Getty Images for ESPN
Dylan Gwinn

ESPN host Peter Burns is one of the funniest people in media. But, apparently, someone forgot to tell Ben Watson.

During halftime of the Western Kentucky-Auburn game on Saturday, Watson, Burns, and the rest of the SEC Network crew were doing their best to generate some entertainment during an otherwise unentertaining broadcast. Burns took the topic away from football for a moment to comment that Watson was the only one of the four hosts not to have a dark-colored suit on.

Watson assured Burns and the rest of the crew that as long as he gets a text from his wife saying he looks good, that’s all he cares about. Burns saw the opening and made what seemed to be a fairly harmless joke.

“It’s not the [text] she sent me,” Burns said.

Well! It appeared as though that joke did not sit well with Watson whatsoever!

Burns’ absence from the set led many on social media to anxiously wonder what had happened to the jokester. Finally, though, a follow-up proof-of-life tweet from Burns alleviated the concern of many.

Though, Watson’s expression and his caption of the tweet suggested that amends had not yet been made entirely.

In response to a request for comment from Outkick, ESPN claimed that the whole thing was a bit.

“Entire thing was a performance bit. Benjamin 100% deserves an Emmy nomination,” wrote Amanda Brooks, ESPN Director, College Football & SEC Network.

Do you buy that?

It seems very odd that someone would decide to make a wife joke a bit. Then you have Watson saying he’s “moving on,” coupled with that terrified, anxious smile in Burns’s tweet, which seems to suggest it was not a bit.

You be the judge.

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