3 takeaways from Craig Carton's first week back at WFAN

Here are three takeaways from the first week of Craig Carton’s new afternoon show “The Carton Show” on WFAN:

1.The eye of the beholder

If you thought Carton was funny in either of his two previous WFAN stints, you thought he was funny this time around.

If you thought he was crude and offensive and not all that funny, you thought the same thing this time (which begs the question: Why are you listening?)

Carton’s shtick was the same: irreverent, bombastic, sometimes crude. He made an off-color remark about Bill Belichick’s girlfriend in the very first segment in the new show’s history on Monday. He enjoys cackling at his own frat-boy humor.

WFAN and Carton’s fans knew what they were getting.

2. Make New York sports great again?

Also during that first segment, Carton made this point while discussing the travails of the Jets and Giants:

“The reality is that when we say we’re the greatest sports town in America, we’re lying. At some level, we have to own that. We’re telling a myth.”

It was a fair point, and it led to much debate on the station and on the internet. That’s sports talk at its finest — there’s no right or wrong answer, but everyone can have an opinion, and in the internet age, every other sports fan in America can weigh in.

3. Lessons in chemistry

Carton and Long Island native co-host Chris McMonigle didn’t do any practice shows before they hit the airwaves on Monday. It showed as the two talked over each other early on, even during a very newsy in-studio interview with Madison Square Garden executive chairman James Dolan on Monday afternoon.

By the time MLB commissioner Rob Manfred dropped by for an interview on Thursday, those issues had mostly been smoothed out.

Manfred made news, too. It would have been nice if the hosts had asked him specific questions about Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner recently whining about how expensive it is to own the team and Mets owner Steve Cohen recently ripping people on X who have been critical of the Mets for seemingly not increasing their payroll this offseason.

Proof of how the hosts were settling in — and how you don’t need to be offensive to get laughs — was a late-week segment in which McMonigle told a story about running into Giants offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo while shopping for clothes in a big man’s store.

That McMonigle would recognize the Giants’ offensive line coach — whom he had never met — shows a level of fandom that the most avid radio listener can appreciate. And while there were “big man” jokes, Carton let the segment breathe so McMonigle would get the laughs without anyone going too far.

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.