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NBC's Kevin Kisner issued public apology for CBS criticism of 2026 Masters coverage

Byington mugby: Alex Byington04/16/26_AlexByington

NBC golf analyst Kevin Kisner unleashed a scathing rebuke of CBS’ television coverage of the 2026 Masters Tournament on Tuesday, specifically calling out the network’s perceived lack of live shots, including missing Rory McIlroy’s tap-in putt on No. 18 to close out his second straight victory at Augusta National.

“I have no idea what they’re doing. Literally, no idea,” Kisner, a former PGA pro in his first year with NBC, said on Monday’s episode of Barstool Sports’ Fore Play. “They’re showing every shot on tape. It’s incredible.”

Three days later, after making multiple headlines with his criticisms, Kisner reversed course. He has issued a public apology to the CBS broadcast crew in charge of this weekend’s Masters coverage.

“It’s been an interesting few days, but it is what it is, man, and I just have to apologize to the golf team at CBS,” Kisner said on Thursday morning’s Barstool Sports‘ Fore Play podcast. “I crossed the line, probably too much, by talking about that whole content, and I know from my short time in the business how wild production is. It is a very difficult thing to produce a live show and make it all work, and everybody does their best.

“NBC screws up all the time and we’re just trying to do our best. I went too far in being critical on them, and I just want all the people associated with it to know I apologize,” Kisner continued. “They’re our partners with the PGA Tour and they continue to showcase, in a great way, the game we all love. And they’re all trying to do their best, and I was too critical of them.”

Kisner, who was doing radio work for SiriusXM at the Masters, was far less forgiving Monday morning when he ripped the CBS broadcast crew for their shot selections Sunday. Kisner even admitted to texting fellow former PGA pro-turned-analyst Colt Knost to complain about CBS’ Masters coverage.

“I was so f—ing confused the entire time by trying to keep up with the behind-the-scenes CBS feed,” Kisner said Monday. “They’re literally showing sh-t that I knew happened 10 minutes ago all day long. It was so bad that I, in fact, texted Colt Knost during the show and said, ‘Do y’all ever show a live shot? I’m better off following the f—ing app than your feed.’ So your entire Masters coverage is a fantasy world. It’s bulls—. Whatever y’all, we all watch, happened seven minutes ago.

“Could you imagine watching the f—ing Super Bowl and being like, ‘Oh, yeah, Tom Brady threw that touchdown seven minutes ago. We’re going to act like it’s live here so our announcers can sound really smart, and we’re going to sit here and he’s going to throw it wide open down the middle. But it actually happened seven minutes ago and everybody in the stadium’s taking a piss.’ What are we doing, man? You have no commercials. Play live shots.”

Clearly, Kisner grew to regret those criticisms just a few days later.

— On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.