FS1 cans ‘Live’ in favor of more Nolan
The Katie Nolan takeover at FOX Sports begins now, and her first casualties saw it coming.
The network that said it was making a “big bet on opinionbased sports programming” is doubling down in the hope its viewers really like the “Garbage Time” host — a lot.
After news broke Thursday that the late-night sports highlight show “FOX Sports Live” would be canceled and “Garbage Time” would be retooled, Sporting News reported the network will amp up Nolan’s presence across its programming slate.
The site quoted one anonymous executive as saying, “You’re going to see zero Jay and Dan, but you’re going to see five times as much Katie Nolan.”
“Jay and Dan” refers to “FOX Sports Live” hosts Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole, whose contracts were not renewed by the network after their show was canceled.
FS1 vice president of content Charlie Dixon released a statement Thursday afternoon regarding the popular Canadian duo’s ouster.
“Throughout the evolution of FS1, we’ve been committed to creating programming that resonates with sports fans,” Dixon said. “As part of that commitment, we are constantly assessing all of FS1’s studio offerings, and despite changes to the format of ‘FOX Sports Live’ and the popularity of Jay and Dan as individuals, we’ve made the difficult decision to move forward with other projects.”
Those other projects likely include Nolan taking over the old “FOX Sports Live” time slot.
When Nolan said she was after that time slot in an interview last year with Sporting News, O’Toole fired off an angry post on Twitter, writing: “Hey @katienolan, great to see you are a team player. Can u feed my kids once you take our time slot? Thanks!”
The end of “FOX Sports Live” should not come as a shock: The “SportsCenter” imitator never was a ratings success and has lagged far behind ESPN’s flagship program in viewership since its debut in 2013.