Kevin Martin Departs Grand Slam Curling Coverage

The Old Bear is without a TV gig.

Retired Olympic and world champion skip Kevin Martin will not return to the Canada’s Grand Slam of Curling broadcast team this fall.

Martin made the announcement on his Inside Curling podcast on Wednesday afternoon. 

“I won’t be involved in the Grand Slam of Curling moving forward, in any way, shape or form, at this time,” said Martin.

The four-time Brier champion skip tied his decision to Sportsnet, the previous Grand Slam owner, who first employed Martin as a television analyst in 2014 immediately after his retirement from the sport.

Sportsnet retains domestic rights to the Slams, but it’s uncertain if the company will continue to provide production rights to the series.

Martin, also known as “K-Mart,” indicated that production would be taken in house. The 15-time Slam champion has been recently paired with fellow analysts Mike Harris and Jennifer Jones, who replaced Joan McCusker a few years ago.

“As it stands today I’m completely out, as of early June,” Martin said. 

Martin said he made the decision in June and then spoke to Nic Sulsky, who heads the Slam’s current ownership team, The Curling Group, around July 1.

“There’s just no place for me in the new group,” said Martin. “To be quite honest, Nic Sulsky, he wasn’t gonna hire me anyway,” he added with a chuckle.

“I don’t want to get negative here. I wish those guys all the best going forward, and what they do with the company is what they do, they own it.”

Martin was involved with the Grand Slam circuit before its inception in 2001, and also spoke at the 2012 news conference that announced Sportsnet’s return to the series.

Martin was also involved in the organization of big-money cashspiels – the “Hunter ’Spiels” – in the late 1990s, which offered first-place prize purses of $40,000.