The NFL On Fox Booth Conundrum
The 2022 NFL offseason was a crazy one, to say the least, one that we had not seen in a long while when it came to personnel movement. No, we are not talking about players, coaches, or team general managers here. The personnel movement being discussed here took place inside the broadcast booth.
The NFL’s main broadcast partners comprising ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, and new entrant Amazon's Prime Video, each revealed a new set of announcers to call the games on their respective networks.
Longtime announcing team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman left Fox Sports for ESPN and were replaced by Fox Sports’ number two team of Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen. Over at NBC Sports, play-by-play announcer Al Michaels was dropped in favor of Mike Tirico, leaving Michaels to move to Prime Video.
CBS Sports stuck with its duo of Jim Nantz and Tony Romo.
NBC Sports, ESPN, and Prime Video had big broadcasts announcing names attached to them due to the offseason moves. Fox Sports, not so much, despite having the more valuable NFC matchups.
Burkhardt and Olsen were familiar names to Fox viewers but did not carry any gravitas as Buck and Aikman. Plus, they hadn’t called a Super Bowl game together, so they lacked experience on that front.
To counter the lack of big-name buzz associated with its broadcast team, Fox Sports announced that the GOAT, Tom Brady, would be part of its main broadcast team to the tune of $375 million over ten years.
This is to happen when he eventually retires from the game.
That announcement generated headlines and buzz and showed the league, the other broadcast networks, advertisers, and viewers that Fox Sports, a network that changed how Sunday games were broadcast, was not ceding its advantage or prominence.
One small problem, Burkhardt and Olsen's chemistry and stature as the current marquee team at Fox Sports grew week-to-week, shining exceptionally bright during the divisional round of the NFL playoffs, with Olsen excelling with his astute observations during the final key moments of the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers game.
Most viewers liked what they saw and heard from the duo, and they’ll be exposed to them again during the NFC Championship game and during Super Bowl LVII, which Fox Sports will broadcast.
With positive reviews coming in, what happens when Brady finally retires and joins Fox Sports?
Brady is still an unproven commodity inside the broadcast booth, and we do not know how good his analytical abilities are.
Olsen, who will move to Fox’s B-team once Brady joins, says that he will make it hard for the Fox Sports executives to move him back down, saying to Sports Illustrated, “Fine. Bench me. But I’m gonna make it hard as shit for you to bench me.”
For Fox Sports executives, they are hoping Brady plays one more season and that the decision on who will be sitting next to Burkhardt can be kicked further down the road.
(New York Post, The Athletic, Awful Announcing, Sports Illustrated)
RECAP
T.J. Holmes And Amy Robach Are No longer With ABC News
An off-camera romance was too much for a news network to handle. That could be seen as the conclusion with regard to how ABC News dealt with T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach's relationship. The news organization on Friday announced that it had parted ways with the couple after their romance set the tabloid world and gossip sites a blaze. The GMA3 anchors had not appeared on air since December 1. An ABC News spokesperson said that “After several productive conversations with Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes about different options, we all agreed it’s best for everyone that they move on from ABC News. We recognize their talent and commitment over the years and are thankful for their contributions.” It seems Disney didn’t want the negative attention that came with all the press and wanted a clean break from the situation. (New York Times)
CNBC Makes Programming Changes
KC Sullivan, president of CNBC, announced a new programming lineup to its weekday schedule that, according to him, is “investing in our core content of business news and personal finance and implementing strategies that will best position CNBC for the future.” The network will launch a new 7 pm ET show, Last Call, anchored by Brian Sullivan. Last Call fills the void left by the cancellation of Shepherd Smith’s news program. Other changes include Sara Eisen moving to co-anchor the 10 am ET hour of Squawk on the Street alongside Carl Quintanilla and David Faber. Scott Wapner is anchoring Closing Bell at 3 pm ET while continuing to host Halftime Report, which will now broadcast live from the New York Stock Exchange. Morgan Brennan will co-anchor Closing Bell: Overtime with Jon Fortt. She moves from Squawk on the Street. In addition to that, senior markets commentator Michael Santoli will provide daily markets insight to Closing Bell: Overtime from the NYSE. Finally, Frank Holland will anchor Worldwide Exchange. (Talking Biz News)
As Peacock Grows, So Does Its Losses
During NBCUniversal's most recent earnings report, the media conglomerate revealed that its streaming service Peacock had recorded an adjusted loss of $978 million during the fourth quarter of 2022. It had accumulated $2.5 billion in losses for the year, which was in line with what the company had predicted. However, the good news was that Peacock added five million subscribers during the same quarter, helping it surpass 20 million paid subscribers. Live coverage of the World Cup on Peacock, provided courtesy of the Spanish channel Telemundo, helped with sign-ups for the streaming service. However, as Peacock continues to grow, NBCUniversal projects that losses will continue to grow, peaking at around $3 billion in 2023. (CNBC and Deadline)
QUICK RECAP
Former CBS Sports and NBC Sports analyst Billy Packer passes away. (The New York Times)
Alayna Treene joins CNN as a Capitol Hill reporter. (CNN Press Room)
Alex Presha promoted to correspondent at ABC News. (ABC News Public Relations)
Geoff Duncan and Mondaire Jones join CNN as on-air commentators. (CNN Press Room)
Blake Burman joins NewsNation as chief Washington correspondent. (TVNewser)
Richard Greene becomes CNN's new Jerusalem bureau chief. (CNN International PR/Twitter)
New streaming leaders announced at MSNBC. (TVNewser)
Nick Paton Walsh named chief international security correspondent at CNN. (TVNewser)
Tara August to depart from WBD Sports. (Sports Business Journal)
Fox Weather's Jason Frazer and WNBC's Romney Smith are expecting their first child. (TVNewser)
Benjamin Hall makes his first live TV appearance on Fox News after the horrific attack in Ukraine. (Fox News)
Tyler Nichols Video: News networks use different approaches in showing the raw video. (Deadline)
Paul Pelosi Video: Fox News’ Harris Faulkner apologizes for the network airing the video without warning. (Forbes)
Profile: Symone Sanders on her MSNBC show. (People)
Profile: Netflix's Bela Bajaria takes on Hollywood. (Vulture)
Profile: Fox Business on her new show. (Talking Biz News)
Netflix offloads two completed movies. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Bally Sports’ parent company Diamond Sports Group, could be headed toward bankruptcy. (NextTV)
DirecTV drops Newsmax and replaces it with The First. (TVNewser & NextTV)
Streaming services didn’t spend as much on films at Sundance. (Variety)
Former Fox News employee sues the network over sexual abuse. (Los Angeles Times)
Could there be one final debate between Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless? (Bar Stool Sports)
Fox Sports to be fined by the FCC over the use of the emergency alert system during a promo. (Sports Business Journal/Twitter)
BET and CBS News to launch new monthly primetime newsmagazine. (TVNewser)
Fox News once again leads in the ratings game amongst cable nets. (Cablefax)
NPR and New York Times asked for Fox News’ defamation case to be unsealed. (NPR)
WBD to return to MSG Theater for upfront. (NextTV)
PBS NewsHour's Geoff Bennett establishes a scholarship at Morehouse College. (Ebony)
Fox Corp and News Corp scrap merger plans. (Reuters)
Is Showtime one step closer to being merged into Paramount Plus? (The Wall Street Journal)
CBS News’ 48 Hours’ tentacles grow in its 35th season. (TVNewser)
Disney adds Hulu's ad-targeting ad tech stack to Disney Plus’ advertising-supported tier. (DigiDay)
Saeed Ahmed named Associated Press’ VP of news for digital platforms. (Associated Press)
CNN's Navalny docufilm receives an Academy Award nomination. (CNN Public Relations/Twitter)
Should NBC Sports do something about Tony Dungy? (The Guardian)
Could Nate Silver and FiveThirtyEight be on the way out at ABC News? (Daily Beast)
CBS News Streaming Network marks one year since its relaunch. (TVNewser)
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A MarkHenry Media LLC publication - Issue #111 - 2023