''Fox Sports Live'' is an American

sports news Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

program that aired on

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...

. It was hosted by Canadian sportscasters Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole, who had been well-known locally for their late-night editions of

TSN TSN may refer to: Science and technology * Translin, DNA binding protein involved in microRNA function * Taxonomic serial number, a stable and unique taxonomic serial number issued by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System * The Science Netwo ...

's '' SportsCentre''. The program was initially formatted as the channel's sportscast of record, in a similar manner to

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

's ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television show, television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of United States, American cable television, cable and satellite television television network, network ESPN. The show ...

'', featuring highlights and analysis of the day's major

sporting event Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, t ...

s and previews of upcoming events, as well as panel discussions, and other, sometimes-comedic segments. After low viewership and a realignment of FS1's editorial operations towards personality and opinion-based programs, the program was retooled in February 2016 as ''Fox Sports Live with Jay and Dan''. It adopted a

late-night talk show A late-night talk show is a genre of talk show popular in the United States, where the format originated. It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the day's news, guest interviews, comedy sketches and music performances. It i ...

-styled format, with a larger focus on comedy segments and interviews than straight sports news. ''Fox Sports Live'' was cancelled on February 23, 2017, with Jay and Dan subsequently returning to TSN to host a revival of their previous show.

Overview and format

The first editions of ''Fox Sports Live'' aired most evenings starting at either 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. – depending on when a scheduled sporting event on FS1 concludes – and running until 2:00 a.m.

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small port ...

. On some nights, the program would begin at 9:30 p.m. Eastern or earlier (such as on

February 14 Events Pre-1600 * 748 – Abbasid Revolution: The Hashimi rebels under Abu Muslim Khorasani take Merv, capital of the Umayyad province Khorasan, marking the consolidation of the Abbasid revolt. * 842 – Charles the Bald and Louis ...

, 2015, the Saturday before the

2015 Daytona 500 The 2015 Daytona 500, the 57th running of the event, was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race which was held on February 22, 2015 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Contested over 203 laps – extended from 200 laps due ...

, when a special daytime edition of ''FSL'' titled "Drive to the 500" aired at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time). From the program's inception until July 2015, Fox Sports 1 aired short 90-second capsules known as the ''Fox Sports Live Update'' at various times in-between commercial breaks; these update segments were alternately branded as ''America's Pregame Update'' (titled after the sports preview show ''

America's Pregame ''America's Pregame'' is an early evening program on Fox Sports 1 hosted by Mike Hill and Molly McGrath. ''America's Pregame'' previewed upcoming games along with news and analysis. It aired at 5 p.m. Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportati ...

'', which itself was cancelled by the network in September 2015) – providing updates of certain stories or reports on headlines that broke since the previous night's initial ''Fox Sports Live'' broadcast – during updates aired on weekdays between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eastern. Until the end of the first run after Super Bowl 50, the program was primarily anchored by Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole on Tuesday through Saturday evenings, and by

Ryan Field Ryan Field may refer to: * Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport, also known as Ryan Field, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States * Ryan Field (airport), also known as Ryan Airfield, in Tucson, Arizona, United States * Ryan Field (sportscaster) (born ...

on Sundays and Mondays. The program also featured a panel of rotating talent with

Charissa Thompson Charissa Jean Thompson (born May 4, 1982) is an American television host and sportscaster working for Fox Sports. Previously, Thompson worked for ESPN, Versus, as well as for GSN and the Big Ten Network. She was the co-host of '' SportsNation ...

serving as moderator and segment host, helming a standalone show at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time, ''Fox Sports Live: Countdown'', on nights when FS1 is not airing a major sports event (during the

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

season, the Friday edition of ''Countdown'' was known as ''Fox Sports Live: Countdown to Kickoff''). The program often leads each broadcast with different, and sometimes more expansive, event coverage than ''SportsCenter'' – in particular, during the 2014 postseason, the program maintained a larger focus on

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

coverage, roughly double the amount covered by ''SportsCenter''. Fox Sports executive vice president Scott Ackerson noted that the program bases what it leads each edition with on "the biggest, most important story there is" on that day, with editions leading out of an event tending to skew coverage toward the sport that was broadcast beforehand. During broadcasts anchored by Onrait and O'Toole, ''FSL'' aired short segments under the ''Fox Sports 1 Sneak Peek'' title, which feature either behind-the-scenes featurettes or comedic spots such as the "FSL Thrill Cam" (with the two stating that the pieces were crafted as an homage to the comedy skits featured on ''

Late Night with David Letterman ''Late Night with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on NBC, the first iteration of the ''Late Night'' franchise. It premiered on February 1, 1982, and was produced by Letterman's production company ...

''). The channel provided a more detailed news ticker during ''Fox Sports Live'' broadcasts, incorporating a panel on the right side of the screen that displayed additional statistics pertaining to the teams discussed in the highlight or topical discussion segment being shown and a sidebar which resembled that seen on ''SportsCenter'' (with the cosmetic difference being that ''FSL''s sidebar was placed on the right side of the screen, whereas ''SportsCenter''s sidebar is placed at the left). Off-the-collar segments were also featured on nights in which Onrait and O'Toole anchor, such as "Are They Related?" (comparing the resemblance of an athlete with another celebrity or fictional character) and "Check the Tweeter" (featuring

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

posts from sports luminaries). Most of the lighter moments during the program occurred during the segments "Get Me that Stat!" (featuring player and team statistics) and "The 1" (which focuses on the top play of the day).

History

Development

On March 5, 2013, as part of Fox Sports Media Group's announcement of Fox Sports 1's launch (replacing the motorsports-focused

Speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quanti ...

), the division announced that it would launch ''Fox Sports Live'' as a daily sports news and analysis program that would compete directly opposite with

's longer-established sports news program, ''

'' (which maintains a more straightforward news, analysis and features format). Fox Sports executives later stated that the program would be treated in the form of multiple shows incorporated within a single three-hour block. Initial plans for the program called for ''Fox Sports Live'' to expand to include a morning edition (with

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

being considered to serve as the production base for the proposed broadcast) in January 2014, which ultimately did not launch at that time. Fox Sports previously had attempted national sports news programs (which focused more on highlights than analysis) on its Fox Sports Net slate of regional networks, beginning with the 1996 premiere of ''Fox Sports News'', which in 2000, evolved into the '' National Sports Report''; six years after the cancellation of that program, '' FSN Final Score'' premiered on the regional networks in 2006, lasting for three years. On May 6, 2013, Fox Sports named Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole as the program's main anchors; the two came to FS1 from

, a Canadian sports channel minority-owned by ESPN, where the pair gained popularity for their irreverent presentation of sports news while serving as anchors of the late-night editions of its version of ''SportsCenter''. O'Toole stated in an interview with the sports website The Big Lead that the two gave a directive to ''Fox Sports Live''s writing staff to avoid giving away the highlight within the program's headline segments, in order to use game highlight to help expand upon the story, saying "It's not just highlights, we want to make it into an actual show and try to develop that 'show within a show world.'" In turn, Fox Sports executives gave Onrait and O'Toole free rein to maintain the humorous, lighthearted approach that made them well known in their home country during their ''SportsCentre'' tenure. Two weeks later on May 23, former tennis player Andy Roddick was announced to become a contributor for ''Fox Sports Live'', joining host

(who rejoined Fox Sports, where she previously served as an NFL sideline reporter and co-host of Fox Sports Net's ''

The Best Damn Sports Show Period ''The Best Damn Sports Show Period'' was an American sports television show that aired on Fox Sports Net and Comcast SportsNet. The show regularly featured irreverent and opinionated interviews with top athletes, coaches, celebrities, and entertai ...

'', after a four-year run as host of ESPN2's '' SportsNation'') as part of a panel feature discussing the day's sports headlines that would also incorporate interview segments. Then on July 25, Fox Sports announced that former

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

player

Gary Payton Gary Dwayne Payton Sr. (born July 23, 1968) is an American former professional basketball player who played the point guard position. Widely considered one of the greatest point guards of all time, he is best known for his 13-year tenure with t ...

and former

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

players

Donovan McNabb Donovan Jamal McNabb (born November 25, 1976) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for thirteen seasons, primarily with the Philadelphia Eagles. Before his NFL career, he played football and b ...

and Ephraim Salaam would be added as contributors; Don Bell and

were named anchors of the Sunday and Monday editions as well as breaking news anchors for the daytime ''Fox Sports Live Updates'', while

Molly McGrath Molly Anne McGrath (born June 6, 1989) is an American sportscaster and studio host who works as a sideline reporter for ESPN’s college football and college basketball telecasts. Career Early sportscasting work (2009–2013) While attending Bos ...

and Julie Stewart-Binks were also named as contributors to the program.

Launch

The program premiered on August 17, 2013, the date of FS1's launch, following the conclusion of its first '' UFC Fight Night'' telecast (featuring a main event card between Maurício Rua and Chael Sonnen). The extended 67-minute premiere telecast averaged 476,000 viewers and registered an overnight rating of 0.3 (only three-tenths of a point below the 0.6 earned by that night's 11:00 p.m. edition of ''SportsCenter''). Reviews for the program were mixed (many comments of which in print reviews and on

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

complimented Onrait and O'Toole's presentation); Awful Announcing's Joe DeLessio and ''USA Today''s Chris Chase noted similarities to ''SportsCenter''s format, with DeLessio adding that ''Fox Sports Live'' " ddeda layer to he sports news formatby having the same panel on the show every night and throwing to it regularly", while ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' columnist Sean Gregory stated the production quality had "the Fox Sports feel." Others noted issues with the chemistry of the contributors to the "Fox Sports Panel" segment. ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' columnist Saul Austerlitz stated that although he felt the program was "often amusing", it felt "strained because of its efforts to differentiate itself from ..''SportsCenter''". Within a few months of its debut, the format of ''Fox Sports Live'' shifted more toward a focus on game highlights and less on panel discussions. Since its premiere, viewership for the 11:00 p.m. broadcast has fluctuated wildly on most nights when the program did not have the help of a strong event lead-in. With declines experienced during its first week (including a 0.0 overnight rating it registered for the August 19 edition), the August 20 edition registered the program's lowest audience up to that point with 61,000 viewers (along with an additional 6,000 viewers on average with simulcasts on many of the Fox Sports regional networks factored in); overall during the period from August 19 to 26, ''Fox Sports Live'' averaged 61,451 viewers (compared to the 1,002,588 that ''SportsCenter'' averaged during that week). The program saw its highest ratings (to date as of January 2014) on November 10, 2013, when the program averaged 161,000 viewers after FS1's telecast of the

Camping World Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of th ...

Lucas Oil 150 The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race is a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race that takes place at Phoenix Raceway. The race has been the last race of the year for the Truck Series since 2020. History From 1995 until 1998, two rac ...

race. Its morning rebroadcast also registered the network's highest ratings in the Sunday 10:00 a.m. Eastern timeslot, with 132,000 viewers on average during the fourth quarter of 2013. ''Fox Sports Live''s highest ratings to date occurred in October 2014, on nights when it had college football and National League Championship Series games as lead-ins, with an average of 353,000 viewers. On October 16, the program earned a single-day ratings high of 2.3 million viewers, following Game 5 of the NLCS, beating the previous high of 2.2 million following a February 2014 NASCAR race telecast (the October 20 edition, without a strong lead-in, comparatively was viewed by only 23,000, a 99% decline); overall during that month, ''Fox Sports Live'' averaged 1.3 million viewers leading out of postseason baseball coverage, and just 75,000 viewers without any live event lead-ins, with very limited increases on nights when Fox aired coverage of the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

(despite heavy promotion during the games). In February 2014, Fox Sports started scaling back its rebroadcasts of ''Fox Sports Live''; as a result, the 3:00 to 6:00 a.m. Eastern repeat block of the program was moved to sister network

Fox Sports 2 Fox Sports 2 (FS2) is an American List of sports television channels, sports-oriented pay television television channel, channel owned by the Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. The channel is based a ...

, while ''FSL'' repeats on Fox Sports 1 from 5:00 to 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. On June 26, 2015, Fox Sports announced that it would eliminate the ''Fox Sports Live Update'' segments as part of a cost-cutting effort done to restructure Fox Sports 1's news operations and streamline the division's television and digital operations, resulting in the layoffs of some of FS1's news and production personnel. The segments were replaced by video content from Fox Sports Digital's @The Buzzer website. In addition, Fox Sports 1 would scale back on live reports for events to which the network does not hold broadcast rights to air.

2016 retooling

On February 22, 2016, ''Fox Sports Live'' was re-launched with a revamped format as ''Fox Sports Live with Jay and Dan''; the new format was more akin to a

rather than a conventional sports news program, with a larger focus on sports-related comedy and interviews. The new format opened with "Here's What Happened Today", a

monologue In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...

-like segment recapping the day's sports headlines, as well as "Jay and Dan's Selected Summation of Today's Athletic Achievements in Sports" (JADSSOTAIS). Other segments may be included in the opening. On some nights, Jay and Dan present "The Producer Tim", the worst play of the day. This leads into a guest for the night (The show also shows the main guest plus two guests that never actually appear on the show, but are provided as comedic relief.). The show ends with "Video you've Already Seen On Your Phone", a series of viral videos, most comedic, before Jay and Dan unveil "The Greg" (referring to former anchor Greg Wolf), the best play of the day. The one holdover segment that remained was "Ya Blew It", during which Jay and Dan correct their mistakes.

Cancellation

Fox Sports 1 announced the cancellation of ''Fox Sports Live'' on February 23, 2017, with the program's final edition airing the previous night. The duo subsequently returned to TSN in September 2017, hosting a new show called ''

SC with Jay and Dan ''SC with Jay Onrait'' (formerly known as ''SC with Jay and Dan'') is a Television in Canada, Canadian sports news program that airs on The Sports Network, TSN. Hosted by Jay Onrait, it is a spiritual successor to the late-night edition of ''Sport ...

'' on that network.

On-air staff

This section lists the program's main hosts and principal panelists (or "opinionists", as termed by Scott Ackerman, executive vice president of Fox Sports), some of whom also served as substitute presenters. In addition, ''Fox Sports Live'' also periodically used reporters and commentators from the various Fox Sports regional networks. ;Anchors * Don Bell – Sunday and Monday anchor; also substitute anchor (2013–2015); left in 2015 to become sports director at

KYW-TV KYW-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate WPSG (channel 57 ...

* Jay Onrait – Anchor (2013–2017) * Dan O'Toole – Anchor (2013–2017) *

– Monday-Friday host/moderator of ''Fox Sports Live: Countdown'' (2013–2015) *

– Saturday and Sunday; also substitute anchor (2013–2016) * Jenny Taft – Sunday and Monday segment host/moderator; also substitute anchor (2013–2016) * Greg Wolf – Saturday and Sunday; also substitute anchor (2013–2016) * Mike Hill – Saturday and Sunday; also substitute anchor (2013–2016) ;Opinionists :''All were mainly seen Monday through Fridays during the old run. The second run rarely featured the opinionists; however, some of them remained with the network to contribute to the show.'' * Eric Karros (2014–present) *

CJ Nitkowski Christopher John "C. J." Nitkowski (born March 9, 1973) is a left-handed former professional baseball pitcher and current baseball broadcaster. A first-round draft choice of the Cincinnati Reds in 1994, he played in the major leagues for the Red ...

(2014–present) * Frank Thomas (2014–present) * Ephraim Salaam (2013–present; seen Monday-Fridays) also on

NFL on Fox The ''NFL on Fox'' (also known as ''Fox NFL'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games produced by Fox Sports and televised on the Fox broadcast network. Game coverage is usually preceded by ''Fox NFL Kickoff ...

Randy Moss Randy Gene Moss (born February 13, 1977) is an American former professional football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots, Tennessee ...

(2013–present; seen mainly on

) *

Joel Klatt Joel Klatt (born February 4, 1982) is a college football color commentator and analyst for Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports. Klatt played college football for the University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Colorado (CU) Colorado Buffalo ...

(2013–present) also on mainly CFB on Fox * Brady Quinn (2013–present) also on mainly

and CFB on Fox *

Ronde Barber Jamael Orondé "Rondé" Barber (born April 7, 1975) is an American former football cornerback who spent his entire 16-year professional career playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He is the identical twin ...

(2015–present) * Petros Papadakis – college football analyst and former ''Fox Sports Live: Countdown'' panelist (2013–present) *

Clay Travis Richard Clay Travis (born April 6, 1979) is an American writer, lawyer, radio host and television analyst. As a sports journalist, Travis founded ''OutKick''. As a political commentator, he and Buck Sexton host ''The Clay Travis and Buck Sexto ...

– college football analyst and former ''Fox Sports Live: Countdown'' panelist (2013–present) *

Frank Luntz Frank Ian Luntz (born February 23, 1962) is an American political and communications consultant and pollster, best known for developing talking points and other messaging for Republican causes. His work has included assistance with messagin ...

– "Sound Off" feature contributor (2013–2014) *

(2013–2014; suspended by Fox Sports in July 2015 following his arrest on a DUI complaint) *

college basketball analyst and ''Fox Sports Live: Countdown'' panelist (2013-2015)

References

External links

*
Fox Sports official website
* {{IMDb title, 3175080, Fox Sports Live Fox Sports 1 original programming 2013 American television series debuts American sports television series English-language television shows 2017 American television series endings