The Upper 90 Studios crew have been pretty busy gearing up for a brand new EPL season, and that is probably the reason I didn’t notice for a couple of days that my AT&T U-Verse DVR stopped recording The Fox Soccer Report. Looking back, I do remember hearing Asa Rehman saying something to Michelle Lissel last week about how “this would be their last show together.” I secretly hoped Asa had finally been let go, but I didn’t really give it much thought.
I haven’t watched LIVE television in years — except for soccer matches, of course — so I rely on my DVR for all of my television-viewing needs. I checked my DVR settings; all seemed in working order. I checked the listings on FSC… and found no Fox Soccer Report anywhere. “What’s going on?” I thought to myself. So I did what any other person in modern society would do: I googled it.
The Changes
After digging through a couple of unrelated articles, Google informed me that the last showing of The Fox Soccer Report was on August 16th, 2012. As of August 17th, 2012, it would be replaced in the United States by an all-new show called Fox Soccer News.
According to FOX , the new show will air 365 days a year in HD, at 10pm ET on FOX Soccer, and will be hosted by Brendan Dunlop, former host of The Footy Show, as well as Canada’s former women’s national team forward Kara Lang.
Supporting these hosts would be a panel of expert analysts, including Fox Soccer Report‘s own Bobby McMahon, along with former MLS manager Thomas Rongen and Canada’s former men’s national team captain Colin Miller.
On the other hand, the Canadian version of the Fox Soccer Report was re-launched as Soccer Central, and made its debut on August 17, 2012 at 11p.m. Eastern on Sportsnet World.
Behind the Scenes
So why the change, one wonders… well, as is always the case, the change is all about money.
Rogers Sportsnet can offer Fox what Shaw Media could not: a well-produced, high-quality show with football rights for around $1 million per year. By outsourcing to Rogers Sportsnet in Toronto, Fox is likely doing the new show for 1/3 the cost of producing its own show out of Los Angeles.
Of course, Fox could do the show for less, but not at current 2012 production standards. Let’s face it, the Fox Soccer Report‘s production value was about as good as any other sports news show… from 2002.
Gerry Dobson is the executive producer over at Rogers Sportsnet. All of the show’s financial decisions come down to him, ultimately; from on-air talent, to content, to exclusive interviews and technology. The show’s success depends on him.
Anticipation
I will admit that at first, I was rather excited about the potential changes; I had been watching the original Report since it was named Fox Sports World Report, but it was difficult to accept the show’s low production values, especially after FSC HD was launched. I remember changing my DVR settings from channel 654 (U-Verse standard) to 1654 (U-Verse HD) when it first became available, only to be crushed when the content on the Report was still in crappy “standard” definition.
Furthermore, the show’s latest hosts pale in comparison to those of years gone by; I used to enjoy the nightly shenanigans of Carlos Machado and Jeremy St. Louis, and even Derek Taylor — those guys had great chemistry, and made the show “fun”. Michelle Lissel was a decent host, as was Terri Leigh (the show’s “eye candy”), but the quality of the hosts definitely fell in recent years. I don’t have anything negative to say about Eoin O’Callaghan, but I can’t think of any television personalities more awkward than Asa Rehman or Lara Baldessara. Ugh… it hurts me to even think of her.
The show stopped being a source of entertainment for me when Carlos left, and became purely informational at that point. But I knew that every night, I could catch highlights from the (few) matches I didn’t happen to watch that day. The show was all news, no fluff, and geared towards football fans. It was a 30-minute show, which basically repeated itself halfway through, but it wasn’t being pretentious; you knew what to expect, and the show always delivered.
I went into my first episode of the Fox Soccer News with mixed emotions.
The New(s) Show
I accessed my DVR’s settings, reluctantly deleted my oldest-running show and replaced it with its brand new successor: The Fox Soccer News, to be recorded “around” 10pm ET, every day, in HD.
I begin to watch my first episode. Good intro — you can tell a ton of money is going into this show, especially compared to the show it is replacing. It is now on par with ESPN’s Sportcenter, for instance. Definitely high production values!
Unfortunately, that is only one of two positives I could find in an hour of television, the other being the High Definition broadcast, of course.
Brian Dunlop, whom I actually liked in The Score, looks stiff, and disappointingly “corporate”. Gone are the jokes, wit, scruffy beard and casual attire, replaced instead with a suit and tie, and not much else. It is as though they’ve surgically removed his personality completely — he is just another host on another sports show.
The “expert analyst” for the day was Thomas Rongen. All I can say is “OH MY GOD!” I don’t mean to be rude, but the guy looks like a cross between Steve Martin and Pee Wee Herman’s awkward loner uncle (complete with bow tie, I kid you not), sounds Jean-Claude Van Damme (and not in a good way), and has less television charisma than Eric Winalda! The guy is super-creepy.
These two personalities have absolutely zero chemistry. Actually… negative chemistry. Is that possible? Don’t take my word for it… just watch this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9MWTDt6iGs[/youtube]I almost forgot about the other host, the guy on the left side of the show that only talked like twice in the entire hour I suffered through. No idea what his name is, it isn’t relevant, nor do I care. He was just as awkward as Asa Rehman in his first week as Report host, if that’s even possible. Truly awful to watch.
The worst part (and no, the hosts aren’t even the worst part) is the content.
Whereas the Report was geared towards the average football fan, this show is clearly geared towards the average American sports fan. I hate to break it to you, Fox… but the average American sports fan does not CARE for “soccer” at all! I just don’t understand how executives can be so clueless about how to grow an audience. A football show isn’t going to do it… the drama of football matches will! Here’s a good article on the subject.
Back to the content. Yes, there were highlights of most of the important matches of the day. And they were mostly in HD. But the commentary was weak. The show seemed to drag on and on, endlessly. There was no spark, no wit, and worse, half of the segments were just plain “fluff”; they contributed nothing to the overall show. They took the Report’s 30 minutes of content, bastardized it and stretched it to last 60.
There was no way I could stomach another episode.
The Bottom Line
Congratulations, Fox — You’ve managed to lose a long-time viewer. I will miss Michelle and Eoin, and Bobby (though supposedly he will be an expert on the new show… that remains to be seen, and not by me). I will even miss Asa. There, I said it.
I promptly deleted the Fox Soccer News series recording, and all traces it ever existed on my DVR.
Don’t worry… I still have a new source of news for the football matches I missed. As a matter of fact, this new show has even MORE content than FSC’s offering.
It is called GolTV News. I will suffer through the bad Brazilian-Portuguese and Spanish translators/hosts, because the American alternative is utter garbage.