A harmless comment from Monica McNutt on a livestream of the MSG Networks’ radio call of Game 4 of the NBA Finals became a trending story online after fans of Taylor Swift piled on the analyst for questioning Swift’s New York Knicks fandom. McNutt playfully suggested Swift should “get out of here,” only for Swift…
Pat McAfee dropped big money on jello shots at Rocco’s ahead of the College World Series, but the experience didn’t live up to the hype when the bar failed to honor the sale with any VIP treatment. The Omaha-based bar and pizza cantina has gone viral in recent years for its now-famous jello shot challenge.…
The World Cup is officially underway now that Alexi Lalas has said something controversial to catch everyone by surprise. During Friday’s World Cup coverage on Fox, host Rebecca Lowe promoted James Corden’s new late-night TV show After Hours. The limited-run show will air nightly on Fox during the World Cup, and after airing a clip…
Versant, the cable spinoff that separated from Comcast earlier this year, is betting heavily on women’s sports. Its newest wager is dedicating Monday and Wednesday primetime on USA Network to women’s programming year-round. Cynthia Littleton at Variety took an in-depth look at the strategy, speaking with USA Sports anchor Elle Duncan and Versant Media CEO…
OG Anunoby’s tip-in delivered Game 4 of the NBA Finals to the Knicks in one of the most chaotic, gut-punch finishes the playoffs have maybe ever produced. In the disorienting seconds that followed, ESPN’s broadcast went looking for reaction shots and found nearly everyone in Madison Square Garden except the players who had just authored…
Longtime baseball play-by-play commentator John Sanders has died. Sanders grew up in Kansas, getting his start at WIBW-TV in Topeka. He then moved to KMBC-TV in Kansas City. At KMBC, Sanders worked Kansas City Chiefs preseason telecasts from 1970-75. In 1978, Sanders moved to KDKA-TV as the weekend sports anchor. He eventually became the station’s…
Kevin Clark’s first brush with Bill Simmons came and went without leaving a mark, at least for The Sports Guy. Clark was a teenager, trailing his family through a Super Bowl week near their place in St. Augustine, Florida, when he recognized Simmons across a restaurant and worked up the nerve to introduce himself. Simmons…
Through four games of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final, the NHL is enjoying its best viewership start since the 2015 edition. But because the Stanley Cup Final still airs exclusively on cable every other year, viewership next year is unlikely to even approach any records. In 2021, the NHL announced seven-year rights agreements with ESPN…
With 11 NBA teams still without a local television agreement for next season, there is reportedly a new broadcast company bidding for local rights: Rangers Sports Network. The news comes from a report by Tom Friend at Sports Business Journal. Rangers Sports Network confirmed in a statement to SBJ that “conversations” had occurred. “Given the…
The Knicks and Spurs have been must-listen as much as must-watch this NBA Finals, according to new data from Spotify. NBA Finals-related podcast listening on Spotify surged more than 350% over the past week, while streams of Finals-related episodes were up more than 450% over the same period. The morning after Game 3 — Tuesday,…
OG Anunoby might deserve a statue outside of Madison Square Garden for his game-winning tip-in, but Carmelo Anthony wants to make sure you know he played a role in the iconic shot as well. After trailing the San Antonio Spurs by 29 points in Game 4 Wednesday night, the New York Knicks pulled off the…
Women have been shut out from the tarps-off phenomenon exploding in Major League Baseball and other sports, but Dani Wexelman and Katie Nolan want to change that. The viral trend that sees men of varying ages strip off their shirts and wave them around like rally towels began last year in college football, but it…
During Thursday’s broadcast of the Korea Republic vs. Czechia on Telemundo, the announce team used the hydration break to address viewers directly, telling them the World Cup belonged to them and that the broadcast would not be taking a break from the action. “This World Cup is ours — we’re not taking a break from…
Earlier this month, American soccer superstar and Fox Sports broadcaster Landon Donovan claimed MLS was “not mature enough yet” to abandon linear television for a streaming-exclusive broadcast deal, like the one the league began with Apple in 2023. Turns out, MLS commissioner Don Garber would agree. Appearing in an interview with Alex Sherman of CNBC…
This originally appeared in Friday’s edition of The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter with the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis. Sign up here and be the first to know everything going on in the sports media world. As the saying often goes, first impressions can mean everything. And yesterday, Fox imparted viewers…
After a 2025 French Open final that featured major stars on both the men’s and women’s sides, TNT Sports saw an expected viewership decline this year absent any star power. Sunday’s men’s final between German Alexander Zverev and Italian Flavio Cobolli averaged just 1.3 million viewers across TNT and truTV, marking a 20-year viewership low…
Fox assembled one of the most credentialed soccer studio teams in American television history for this World Cup — Thierry Henry, Clarence Seedorf, Peter Schmeichel, Javier Hernández, Alexi Lalas, Carli Lloyd, Clint Dempsey — and the analyst it is most counting on to make the whole thing work has never done studio television before, has…
All Times Eastern Australian Rules Football AFL Men’s — Round 14 Melbourne Demons vs. Essendon Bombers — Fox Soccer Plus, 11 p.m. North Melbourne Demons vs. West Coast Eagles — Fox Soccer Plus, 2 a.m. (Saturday) Port Adelaide Power vs. Sydney Swans — Fox Soccer Plus, 5:30 a.m. (Saturday) Beach Volleyball AVP League Week 3,…
The NFL has found itself in the crosshairs of the federal government in recent months amid a not-so-subtle pressure campaign from Fox Corporation founder Rupert Murdoch. The league, which recently began an effort to renegotiate its media rights deals several years early with the hopes of securing billions of dollars in fee increases from its…
The World Cup did not get off to a hot start for South Africa on Thursday. The 2010 World Cup host faced off against one of this year’s host nations, Mexico, to kick off the 2026 World Cup, and it was never a contest. From the jump, the Mexican team looked dominant, scoring in the…
Among the festivities inherent to the opening day of a World Cup, Fox found a moment to strike a more somber tone during its coverage. During Fox Sports’ pregame show leading up to the opening World Cup match between Mexico and South Africa, host Rebecca Lowe paid tribute to beloved soccer reporter and former Fox…
The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand has been all over ESPN’s plans for who will call their eight non-Monday Night Football games this upcoming season. In his latest report, it sounds like it’s not a question of who, but which announcers. Marchand reported Thursday that ESPN is “zeroing in” on splitting those games between play-by-play broadcasters Dave…
Alexi Lalas isn’t worried about the United States serving as the primary host of the FIFA men’s World Cup this summer. In fact, he thinks it will reinforce President Donald Trump’s commitment to the sport and his legacy as “the soccer president.” In an appearance on The Ryen Russillo Show released Thursday as Fox’s coverage of…
Fox has been an NFL broadcasting partner since 1994, but Mike Florio could see that longstanding relationship coming to an end in the near future. On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee held a lengthy hearing on the NFL’s broadcast antitrust exemption amid concerns that the league has been skirting the exemption’s limits, which arguably apply…
Fans learned earlier on Thursday, just hours before the World Cup began, that Fox had opted to utilize the FIFA-mandated mid-half hydration breaks to air full-screen advertising, a stark departure from usual soccer broadcasting standards that see each half air unencumbered by commercials. Suffice it to say, it didn’t take long for these commercials to…