'Clay and Buck' celebrate one year on air: 'Continuing the fight' Rush Limbaugh began in 1988

On the one-year anniversary of the "Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show" officially taking over for the late Rush Limbaugh, the hosts celebrated their last 52 weeks at noon eastern, while touching on pressing issues of the day as always.

Travis, who typically broadcasts from Nashville, traveled to New York to anchor in-person with his co-host, city native Sexton.

The hosts said that, like their EIB Network predecessor, they encourage and enjoy listeners' reactions and analysis to anything that happens on the program or in the news, down to the most apolitical.

In the most recent example, Travis said a listener named Gregory emailed him at 5:18 in the morning on the East Coast to inform him that Sexton has been botching "Top Gun" references on-air.

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"The [email] headline was ‘Buck Messed Up on Top Gun’," Travis recalled. "First of all, before I even read his email, I didn't know how we ended up in a world where people reach out to me to share opinions about you on movies." Sexton had purportedly confused "Merlin" with Tom Skerritt's "Viper."

Sexton and Travis suggested that exchange, on even a tangential topic, and the requisite political interjection (about "Merlin" being played by "that freaking socialist-liberal Tim Robbins"), shows how listeners are engaging with the program as they were with Limbaugh:

"Thank you to Gregory. In all honesty, one of the most fun things I think about the one-year anniversary is … how committed this audience has been to helping us to continue to fight, that Rush was so committed to himself," Travis added.

And, just as in the case of Limbaugh, listeners have not been apprehensive about offering an opposing viewpoint, Sexton said, explaining an episode where a listener wrote in to object to how the former CIA officer cracks his eggs – directly into the frying pan, rather than an intermediary bowl.

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"The Rush Limbaugh Show" first hit the airwaves on August 1, 1988. Limbaugh spent 33 years behind the golden microphone, many of those at #1, before passing away in 2021 at the age of 70 following a battle with cancer. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2020 from President Donald Trump.

On one of his final shows, the 2020 edition of the annual Christmas-themed affair, an emotional Limbaugh spoke at length about his love for his audience, and how he was grateful to God to have outlived his cancer prognosis – as the final chords of Mannheim's ‘Silent Night’ rung out.

Almost immediately following news of his passing, scores of Dittoheads dropped off mementos and cards, creating a makeshift memorial in front of his Palm Beach, Fla. home.

Following his death, the EIB Network was helmed by several of the program's popular guest hosts, including New Hampshire's Mark Steyn, Pennsylvania's Ken Matthews of WHP-580, former Seattle host Todd Herman and North Carolina's Brett Winterble.

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When Sexton and Travis took over for Limbaugh, both said it was an honor and privilege to do so.

"I was inspired by Rush, and so was Clay," Sexton told Fox News at the time. "One of the biggest breaks in my career was guest-hosting for Rush [eight] years ago."

Sexton said he could personally attest to the connection the late Limbaugh had with his millions of Dittoheads, remarking to Fox News that after just one day of guest-hosting years prior, he received numerous encouraging communications from listeners who made a real connection with him – as they still continue to do to this day.

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Travis added at the time, Limbaugh won't ever be replaced, but together he and Sexton work to continue the late Missourian's core values:

"[M]ost importantly – American exceptionalism, a fervent embrace of capitalism, and a belief in a robust marketplace of ideas," he said.