With Fox Sports 1 launching Saturday, here is a scouting report for one of its signature shows.
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Fox Football Daily
When: Weeknights at 6 p.m. ET. Fox NFL Kickoff premieres Sunday, Sept. 8, and airs from 11:00 AM-12:00 PM ET every Sunday morning during the NFL season.
Cast: Host Curt Menefee, NFL insider Jay Glazer, Brian Urlacher, Randy Moss, Ronde Barber, Scott Fujita, Mike Pereira, Joel Klatt. Also, Fox’s big guns, Terry Bradshaw, etc., will make appearances.
Competition: The myriad of NFL daily shows elsewhere.
Concept: This line from Fox says it all: “Fox Football Daily covers the NFL and college football in a live, fast-paced show combining up-to-the-minute news, highlights, features and analysis presented in Fox NFL Sunday’s signature “info-tainment” style.”
Info-tainment? In other words, Fox’s version is likely to be looser and more free-wheeling than the other football shows. Check out the video.
Fox also is banking on its high-profile analysts to attract viewers.
“Great players step off the playing field every year, but I’m confident in saying that no network has ever been able to add four former players of this caliber at one time as Fox Sports 1 has,” said Fox Sports 1 executive producer John Entz. “Add the names Urlacher, Moss, Barber and Fujita to Bradshaw, Long, Johnson, Strahan, Aikman, Lynch and our many other top-flight football analysts and it’s easy to see our quality and depth.”
Wildcard: Randy Moss. He’s outspoken, and there is a lot of potential for him to be good here. However, as he was as a player, there’s always an element of uncertainty with Moss. Will he make the necessary commitment to make this work? You can’t just show up and expect to be good on TV too.
What could possibly go wrong? Besides Moss, you have other first-timers as analysts in Barber, Urlacher, and Fujita. Will they be any good? Will they be able to critique players who were their teammates? More importantly, will they have something to say?
TV is littered with many big name stars who came up woefully short as analysts. The goal is for these guys to avoid adding their names to the list.
Prognosis: Of all of Fox Sports 1’s new shows, this one appears to have the most potential to work. Menefee is a pro, and the analysts will have appeal. A key guy is Glazer. Given his relationships with the former players turned analysts (especially Urlacher), he could be a glue to the show, bringing out the best in them.