Ernie Johnson Stepping Away From MLB on TBS Hosting Duties for Remainder of Season

The longtime broadcaster is taking time off to 'take care of a family matter.'

February 20, 2022; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; TNT broadcaster Ernie Johnson Jr. after the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports / Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Major League Baseball will return to TBS national airwaves on Tuesday evening after a week off for the All-Star Break. But the pre- and post-game broadcasts will look a bit different.

On Monday, Warner Bros. Discovery announced Ernie Johnson would be stepping away from hosting duties for MLB broadcasts for the remainder of the season and throughout the postseason. He will be replaced by MLB Network's Greg Amsinger, the network said.

In the release, Johnson thanked TNT Sports for allowing him to take time off to tend to a family matter.

""I'd like to thank the leadership at TNT Sports for allowing me the time away to take care of a family matter during the baseball season," the longtime host said. "I look forward to returning to the studio for the start of the NBA season.”

Johnson is most famous for his work on Inside The NBA alongside Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O'Neal. But that Emmy-winning studio show is not his only role at the network. Since 2020 he's been the host of all TBS studio coverage for the network's weekly national broadcasts during the regular season, as well as the TBS postseason coverage. Johnson's work in baseball stretches back even further; from 2007-2009 he held the same role for TBS alongside Cal Ripken Jr. and was the network's lead play-by-play man for the 2010 MLB season.

But Johnson will be absent from this year's MLB on TBS coverage. He will be missed, and it'll be up to Amsinger to maintain the quality of the broadcast.