Even the Mad Dog believes Mike Francesa made a mistake returning to WFAN.

Chris Russo says his longtime sports-talk partner should not have come back to the WFAN airwaves after quitting his drive-time show in December 2017. Francesa returned to FAN barely four months later, but he has fallen behind ESPN’s “The Michael Kay Show” in the ratings and confirmed earlier this month that his afternoon program will be ending for good in December.

“Mike should never have come back. He should have stayed retired,” Russo said in an interview with David J. Halberstam for the website Sports Broadcast Journal. “He had a great run and developed a great legacy. Those last couple of weeks before his first retirement were memorable and wonderful. He had an amazing sendoff. Three months later he was back. The whole return was crazy. No one expected it.”

Francesa initially was replaced by the trio of Chris Carlin, Maggie Gray and Bart Scott, but Carlin has since parted ways with the station. The Post’s Andrew Marchand has reported that both Carlin and Scott are expected to land with rival station ESPN New York.

“WFAN had already placed his successors on-air. The station had to uproot them,” said Russo, who split with Francesa in 2008 to form “Mad Dog Radio” on Sirius XM. “People wondered whether Francesa can reclaim the wins he was getting consistently in the ratings book. All of a sudden, Mike was back in the mix and it created an unhealthy rivalry.

“Mike would likely not admit it but he might realize that it was a mistake.”

Russo recently said that he and Francesa had not spoken since his friend’s WFAN return.

In numbers released last week, Kay crushed Francesa for the second month of the ratings book with a 7.5 rating, while Francesa was second at 6.2. (Even adding Francesa’s much-debated 0.7 rating via streaming services, Kay still held a significant advantage).

“Frankly, I can understand both sides,” Russo said. “For so many years, ESPN was picked upon as weak. I did some of the picking myself. They were downtrodden, a joke. And now Kay is beginning to win, so let him pump his chest a bit. Then again, I could see why Mike would be annoyed by it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Russo was asked which national talk show host – among Dan LeBatard, Colin Cowherd, Dan Patrick, Jim Rome, or Stephen A. Smith – he believes is most like him.

“I can’t compare myself to Dan Patrick. He has an ensemble in his Connecticut studio. He has had great success on television,” Russo said. “Stephen A. is a little bombastic, as I am. He’s also an entertainer and he can sell something. So you might say that there are comparisons between us. I can’t be compared to Cowherd who does a very good talk show, but he doesn’t take calls. I do.”

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