''Fox NFL Kickoff'' is an American sports television program that originally debuted on

FS1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by the Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed (TV network), Speed on August 1 ...

on September 8, 2013, and moved to

Fox Broadcasting Company The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

(Fox) on September 13, 2015, and serves as the secondary

pre-game show A pre-game, pregame, or pre-match show is a television or radio presentation that occurs immediately before the live broadcast of a major sporting event. They typically feature previews and analysis relating to upcoming games (either a larger fixt ...

for the network's

National Football League 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 ...

(NFL) game telecasts under the ''

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 ...

'' brand. The hour-long program – which airs Sunday mornings at 11:00 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 ...

– focuses on news and analysis of the week's upcoming NFL games as well as interviews with NFL coaches and players, and live reports from sites for the network's game telecasts, serving as an extension of Fox's primary NFL pre-game show, ''

Fox NFL Sunday ''Fox NFL Sunday'' is an American sports television program broadcast on the Fox television network. The show debuted on September 4, 1994, and serves as the pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL) game telecasts under the ...

'', whose own analysts appear on certain segments seen on the program. An audio simulcast of the program airs on sister radio network

Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio is an American sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports division and iHeartMedia, parent company ...

, which is distributed by

Premiere Radio Networks Premiere Networks (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a wholly owned subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. It ...

History

Early history on Fox Sports 1

On August 12, 2013, Fox Sports announced that it would launch ''Fox NFL Kickoff'' as a supplementary pre-game show to the Fox broadcast network's NFL coverage on Sundays; the program premiered on September 8, 2013 – the inaugural Sunday of that year's

NFL season The National Football League (NFL) regular season begins on the weekend following the first Monday of September (i.e, the weekend following the Labor Day holiday) and ends in early January, after which that season's playoffs tournament begins. I ...

– on Fox Sports 1, the division's national sports network that launched three weeks earlier on August 17. For its first two seasons, the program was originally hosted by

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 ...

; former NFL players

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 ...

Brian Urlacher Brian Urlacher (; born May 25, 1978) is an American former football linebacker who spent his entire 13-season career in the National Football League (NFL) with the Chicago Bears. He played college football for the New Mexico Lobos, where he bec ...

and

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 ...

served as analysts, providing previews and prognostications for the day's game slate and reviewing any games held earlier that week. Urlacher left the program shortly after it began its second season on September 16, 2014, following his decision to resign from his analyst role at Fox Sports; Former

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

and

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

head coach

Dave Wannstedt David Wannstedt (born May 21, 1952) is a former American football coach. He has been the head coach of the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). He was also the head coach of the University of Pittsburgh footbal ...

became an analyst shortly beforehand at the start of the second season. McNabb was placed on an indefinite suspension by the sports division on July 12, 2015, following his arrest on a

DUI Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...

complaint. During years when Fox holds the broadcast rights to the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

, the program is retitled ''Fox Super Bowl Kickoff'', running as a four-hour broadcast. The program struggled in the ratings throughout its run on FS1, averaging under 100,000 viewers during the 2014 season, with its lowest viewership being recorded on the November 30 edition, which registered a paltry 28,000 viewers (far behind competing NFL pre-game shows, ''

Sunday NFL Countdown ''Sunday NFL Countdown'' (officially ''Sunday NFL Countdown presented by Snickers'') is an American pregame television program that covers the NFL action for that week. The show airs on ESPN in the United States and TSN in Canada from 10 a.m. to ...

'' on

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 ...

and '' NFL GameDay Morning'' on

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NFL ...

Move to Fox

On July 20, 2015, Fox Sports announced that ''Fox NFL Kickoff'' would move to the main Fox network, beginning in the

2015 NFL season The 2015 NFL season was the 96th season in the history of the National Football League (NFL), and the 50th in the Super Bowl era. To celebrate the 50th season of the Super Bowl, a gold-plated NFL logo and other various gold-themed promotions w ...

. Fox asked its

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...

s and

affiliates In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or al ...

to clear the 11:00 a.m.

hour on Sundays to run the program (displacing

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...

religious programming Religious broadcasting, sometimes referred to as faith-based broadcasts, is the dissemination of television and/or radio content that intentionally has religious ideas, religious experience, or religious practice as its core focus. In some coun ...

or the network's political discussion show ''

Fox News Sunday ''Fox News Sunday'' is a Sunday morning talk show that has aired on the broadcast Fox network since 1996, as a presentation of Fox News Channel. It is the only regularly scheduled Fox News program carried on the main Fox broadcast network. Host ...

'' that were carried in that timeslot on most Fox stations, and local weekend morning newscasts on select stations located in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and

Mountain Time Zone The Mountain Time Zone of North America keeps time by subtracting seven hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) when standard time ( UTC−07:00) is in effect, and by subtracting six hours during daylight saving time ( UTC−06:00). The clo ...

s, where Fox's NFL coverage begins earlier). Executives with the sports division cited the preference to provide a stronger lead-in for ''Fox NFL Sunday'' (despite its position as the highest-rated NFL pre-game show for its entire 21-year history to that point, with the show averaging 4.9 million viewers during the 2014 season, an increase of 2% from 2013) and by effect, result in higher initial ratings for the network’s early afternoon game telecasts. Fox executives stated that the show would continue to utilize talent separate from that used by the network's longer established pre-game program, ''Fox NFL Sunday'', although personalities from that program would act as contributors. In some cases it also allows the network full control of up to twelve hours of programming on gameday Sunday (including primetime for doubleheader days), if an affiliate leads in ''Fox NFL Kickoff'' with the network's

Sunday morning talk show A Sunday morning talk show is a television program with a news/talk/ public affairs–hybrid format that is broadcast on Sunday mornings. This type of program originated in the United States, and has since been used in other countries. Overview Th ...

, ''

''. On August 12, the division announced that former ESPN personality

Colin Cowherd Colin Murray Cowherd (born January 6, 1964) is an American sports media personality. Cowherd began his broadcasting career as sports director of Las Vegas television station KVBC and as a sports anchor on several other stations before joining ...

would join Fox Sports; in addition to his

radio show A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio networ ...

moving to Fox Sports Radio and Fox Sports 1, Cowherd serves as a studio analyst for ''Fox NFL Kickoff''. On September 11, 2015,

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 ...

(who also acts as a moderator and segment host of Fox Sports 1's sports news program ''

Fox Sports Live ''Fox Sports Live'' is an American sports news program that aired on Fox Sports 1. 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's '' SportsCentre''. The ...

'', and was an NFL sideline reporter for Fox in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and 2014) was named as the new host of the program, replacing Klatt; the appointment reunited Thompson with Cowherd, with whom she previously co-hosted

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

's '' SportsNation'' from 2012 to 2013. Former NFL player

Champ Bailey Roland "Champ" Bailey Jr. (born June 22, 1978) is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Georgia Bulldogs, where he earned consensus All-A ...

was added as an analyst, with

Cooper Manning Cooper Archibald Manning (born March 6, 1974) is an American entrepreneur and television personality who is the host of the television show ''The Manning Hour'' for Fox Sports as well as principal and senior managing director of investor relation ...

added as a special contributor, conducting interviews and contributing to other special segments. In part because of the relative lateness of the announcement, Fox stations in markets totaling about 10% of the U.S. (such as

WFLD WFLD (channel 32) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Gary, Indiana–licensed MyNetworkTV ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

KTVU KTVU (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Oakland, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside San Jose� ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

KCPQ KCPQ (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Tacoma, Washington, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Seattle area. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outlet K ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

WVUE-DT WVUE-DT (channel 8) is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains primary studios on Norman C. Francis Parkway in the city's Gert Town sectio ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, and

WBFF WBFF (channel 45) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with Fox and MyNetworkTV. It is one of two flagship stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group (based in nearby Hunt Valley), alongside ABC affiliate WJLA-TV ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

) have declined to air ''Fox NFL Kickoff'' since due to existing programming commitments, specifically those to locally produced pre-game shows for local NFL franchises (either "official" team-produced or unofficial productions) that have led into ''Fox NFL Sunday'' prior to the move of ''Kickoff'' to Fox or to fulfill educational and informational programming requirements, or moved it to a secondary subchannel, as

WITI Witiness Chimoio João Quembo (born 26 August 1996), known as Witi, is a Mozambican professional footballer who plays for Portuguese club C.D. Nacional as a winger. Club career Born in Beira, Witi began his career with Sporting Club da Be ...

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

did, moving it to their

Antenna TV Antenna TV is an American digital television network owned by Nexstar Media Group. The network's programming consists of classic television series, primarily sitcoms, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Antenna TV's programming and advertising operati ...

subchannel. Similar to such agreements involving the network's former children's programming blocks, Fox contracted the local rights to the program to air on an affiliate of

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...

– typically one co-owned or co-operated with the local Fox station – in areas where a Fox owned-and-operated station or affiliate chose not to carry it. WITI and KCPQ began to carry it in the 2020 season on their main channels after coming under direct Fox ownership. However, in some markets, ''Fox NFL Kickoff'' does not air at all. This includes a number of fairly large markets such as

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

and New Orleans (the latter devoting its morning to Saints pre-game programming).

Fox stations not airing ''Fox NFL Kickoff'' (as of the 2019 season)

On-air staff

Current on-air staff

– studio host (2015–present) *

Charles Woodson Charles Cameron Woodson (born October 7, 1976) is a former American football defensive back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons with the Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers. He played college football at Mic ...

– analyst (2021–present) *

Michael Vick Michael Dwayne Vick (born June 26, 1980) is a former American football quarterback. Regarded as having transformed the quarterback position with his rushing abilities, he is the NFL leader in quarterback rushing yards and was the league's firs ...

– analyst (2017–present) *

Sean Payton Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/ Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; anglici ...

— analyst (2022–present) *

Peter Schrager Peter Schrager (born April 20, 1982) is a sportscaster on Fox Sports and NFL Network. Schrager serves as an analyst on ''Fox NFL Kickoff'' as well as a Sideline Reporter on Fox Sports. In addition to his gameday coverage, he is a regular con ...

– analyst and insider (2018–present) *

– contributor (2015–present) *

Josh Norman Joshua Ricardo Norman (born December 15, 1987) is an American football cornerback who is a free agent. He played college football at Coastal Carolina and was drafted by the Panthers in the fifth round of the 2012 NFL Draft, and has also played f ...

– frequent guest analyst (2016–present) *

Chris Myers Chris Myers (born ) is an American sportscaster. He has covered the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals, the NCAA Final Four, The Masters, the U.S. Open, the Triple Crown, the Olympics, and the Daytona 500. Early life and career ...

– postseason reporter/fill-in studio host (2013–present)

Former on-air staff

– analyst (2013–2022) *

– co-host (2015–2020) *

– analyst (2015) *

Tony Gonzalez Anthony David Gonzalez (born February 27, 1976) is an American former football tight end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons. Regarded as one of the greatest tight ends of all time, he is the NFL's all-time leader ...

– analyst (2017–2020) *

– studio host (2013–2014) *

– analyst (2013–2014) *

– analyst (2013–2015) *

Charles Tillman Charles Anthony Tillman (born February 23, 1981), nicknamed Peanut,Donnelly, MikeCharles Tillman - Not Your Typical 'Peanut'(January 18, 2007), nflplayers.com, Retrieved on July 25, 2007. is an American former professional football player who ...

– analyst (2016) *

– analyst (2013–2014)

References

External links

* {{Navboxes, list1= {{Fox Sports {{NFL on Fox {{National Football League on television and radio {{FOXNetwork Shows (current and upcoming) NFL Kickoff NFL Kickoff NFL Kickoff

Fox NFL Kickoff ''Fox NFL Kickoff'' is an American sports television program that originally debuted on FS1 on September 8, 2013, and moved to Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox) on September 13, 2015, and serves as the secondary pre-game show for the network's Nat ...

National Football League pregame television series English-language television shows