No one can fill the gap left by the late Rush Limbaugh in talk radio. Dan Bongino got the call for Rush’s Cumulus Media markets two months ago, however, and [updated furiously] my friend Dana Loesch got a new and expanded deal with Radio America. That left Premiere Networks those golden three hours every weekeday to fill on Rush’s home network. After an interregnum of guests hosts-as-auditions and reruns, they have selected Limbaugh’s successor. Er, successors, as the Wall Street Journal scooped earlier:

The Rush Limbaugh replacements are in, as Clay Travis and Buck Sexton will take over his three-hour conservative talk radio show time slot, said distributor Premiere Networks.

The duo will serve up similar right-wing fare, tackling news stories of the day, politics and current events, peppered with call-ins from listeners and humor. Premiere Networks hopes the younger voices will bring something new to talk radio, while also continuing on in Mr. Limbaugh’s legacy. The program, slated to begin airing June 21, will be called “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show.” It is expected to air around the country, from noon to 3 p.m. ET, on hundreds of stations.

“We’re not going to replace Rush Limbaugh, we’re going to have an evolution of the show with fresh voices—those that grew up on Rush and admired him,” said Julie Talbott, president of iHeartMedia Inc.’s IHRT +1.52% Premiere Networks.

One has to wonder just how much Premiere needed to find a replacement. According to the WSJ, the syndication of Rush’s own content was holding 75% of his audience. That’s a remarkable number, considering how fast political material gets outdated, especially in this era. Most talk-radio producers work hard to develop guest-host resources to keep from losing audiences when regular hosts go on vacation or call in sick. Premiere was actually using a blend of those strategies — bringing in guest hosts to work around Rush’s classic segments when those were still topical. One has to wonder whether that strategy might have worked sufficiently for a while longer, and whether going with new hosts presents a risk.

On the other hand, Premiere would have had to make a move eventually, and this looks like a solid choice. Travis has a loyal following with his Outkick the Coverage show on Fox Sports radio, and Buck Sexton has a separate but substantial audience already on Premiere. Both men are younger — 42 and 39, respectively — which holds the promise of a long run if they can make radio magic in their partnership. That alone will change the dynamic of this slot substantially, as Rush was one of the few broadcasters who could carry an entire three-hour show by himself with no problem.

Congratulations are in order to Travis, Sexton, and for that matter Loesch and Bongino as well. They won’t eclipse Rush or fill his shoes, but no radio host succeeds by trying to copy someone else’s show. And for those who miss the original and inimitable king of talk radio, you can bet that Premiere will find ways to keep syndicating Rush’s content for as long as it holds that much of his audience.

Update: Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa for forgetting Dana. She’d been drawing 8 million listeners at Radio America even before that. And one other correction: the Audacy decision has not yet come down, but the expanded deal at Radio America has.