Behind the Mic: Colin Cowherd Officially Joins Fox Sports; NBC Names Ryan Seacrest as Rio Olympics Late Night Host
Story Highlights
Colin Cowherd has officially joined FOX Sports and Premiere Networks in September as a television, radio and digital personality. Cowherd is set to host a three-hour sports talk program titled THE HERD beginning Tuesday, Sept. 8 airing simultaneously on FOX Sports 1 and the FOX Sports Radio Network, including AM 570 LA Sports/KLAC, weekdays from 12:00 to 3:00 PM ET. In addition to the FOX Sports 1/FSRN simulcast, Cowherd also becomes a key member of the FOX NFL KICKOFF cast, a show which moves from FOX Sports 1 to FOX, airing Sundays at 11:00 AM ET preceding FOX NFL SUNDAY. The show’s full roster is expected to be unveiled in the days ahead. Cowherd is also part of the team contributing to FOX Sports 1’s coverage of Jim Harbaugh’s debut as Michigan head coach when Utah hosts the Wolverines in both teams’ season-opener on Thursday, Sept. 3.
Colin Cowherd
Cowherd was host of ESPN Radio’s The Herd with Colin Cowherd, airing nationally on weekdays and simulcast on ESPNU. He also hosted Colin’s New Football Show on ESPN2 in 2013 and 2014, in addition to a variety of programs on ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN Classic. He was the original co-host of SportsNation on ESPN2. Cowherd joined ESPN Radio in 2004 when his program launched as an hour-long broadcast just on the West Coast. Prior to ESPN Radio, Cowherd The Herd at KFXX 910-AM in Portland and anchored weeknight sports and Sports Sunday for KGW Northwest NewsChannel 8. Cowherd’s rise in the industry also includes serving as sports anchor at Tampa’s WTVT-TV and as sports director at KVBC-TV in Las Vegas…
…With just under a year to go until the Opening Ceremony, NBC Olympics announced that Ryan Seacrest will serve as host for NBC’s late night coverage of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Seacrest served as a correspondent for NBC’s coverage of the 2012 London Games, intervieweing U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps co-hosting the Closing Ceremony.
Seacrest is host of the primetime talent showcase “American Idol” on Fox, as well as host and executive producer of ABC’s annual New Year’s Eve program, “Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.” He also has an agreement with NBCUniversal that includes on-air broadcasting and producing duties across the NBC and E! Networks, including serving as host and producer of the E! Live from the Red Carpet awards programs. On radio, Seacrest is host of “On Air with Ryan Seacrest,” his market-topping #1 nationally syndicated LA morning drive-time show for iHeartMedia’s 102.7 KIIS-FM, as well as the nationally-syndicated “On Air with Ryan Seacrest,” “American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest,” and the weekday vignette “Direct from Hollywood…
…Ryen Russillo, who has spent the last 10 years with ESPN Radio, has signed a multiyear extension and will continue with ESPN Radio as host of Russillo & Kanell, co-hosted by ESPN college football analyst Danny Kanell and broadcast daily from 1 – 4 p.m. ET. The new three-hour show will debut Monday, Aug. 31, and will be televised on ESPNEWS starting at 1 p.m. Russillo will also have an expanded TV presence across multiple studio shows, with a focus on NBA programming.
Russillo was named co-host of ESPN Radio’s Scott Van Pelt Show in May 2009. Since June 2015, he has hosted The Russillo Show with a group of alternating co-hosts, including Kanell.
Previously, Russillo hosted ESPN Radio’s College GameDay (noon-7 p.m. Saturdays throughout the football season). Russillo joined ESPN Radio in February 2006, and hosted NBA Sunday, The Baseball Show and the NFL Draft. Prior to joining ESPN, Russillo was a sports voice in Boston, Mass. where he was a CSN studio host and NBA analyst, and a Sporting News Radio host.
Kanell, who recently signed a multi-year agreement with ESPN, will continue to host college football studio programming on ESPN Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Kanell joined ESPN in 2010 as a college football game and studio analyst. Prior to joining ESPN, Kanell was an NFL and college football analyst for WQAM Miami and CBS4 Miami. After playing quarterback at Florida State for four years, Kanell was drafted by the New York Giants in 1996 and also played for the Atlanta Falcons and the Denver Broncos until 2004…
The NFL on FOX has announced its game broadcast teams for the upcoming 2015 season. New this year will be FOX Sports play-by-play announcer Thom Brennaman reuniting in the booth with analyst Charles Davis. Davis receives his first full slate of NFL games after serving as the network’s lead college football analyst from 2007 to 2014. The tandem previously teamed up to call more than 30 college football contests for FOX and Big Ten Network from 2007 to 2010, including all three BCS National Championship Games between 2007 and 2009. They are joined by on-field analyst Tony Siragusa, in his 12th season with FOX Sports, serving as the NFL’s only on-field analyst.
Fox’s broadcast teams will be led by play-by-play announcer Joe Buck and lead analyst Troy Aikman in their 14 season along with Erin Andrews in her second season as the team’s sideline reporter. Second in line will be play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt in his third season alongside analyst John Lynch (his seventh season in the booth for FOX Sports) and veteran sideline reporter Pam Oliver (her 21st FOX NFL season). FOX Sports veteran announcer Kenny Albert and analyst Daryl Johnston enter their ninth season together in the booth, joined for the first time by sideline reporter Laura Okmin. The team of announcer Chris Myers, analyst Ronde Barber and sideline reporter Jennifer Hale returns for a second campaign this fall. Additionally, veteran play-by-play voice Dick Stockton pairs with analyst David Diehl and sideline reporter Kristina Pink. Rounding out FOX NFL’s broadcast assignments in 2015 is a crew led by play-by-play announcer Sam Rosen with a rotation of analysts throughout the season. Former NFL players Chris Cooley, Matt Millen, Kirk Morrision and Brady Quinn join Rosen in the booth for games during the year. Also contributing to FOX NFL as sideline reporters this season are Peter Schrager, Holly Sonders and Danielle Trotta. Former NFL Vice President of Officiaiting Mike Pereira, resumes his role as FOX Sports’ rules analyst from the studio in Los Angeles….
…FOX Sports also finalized its full roster of for college football. Having already revealed its re-tooled lineup featuring new lead game analyst Joel Klatt and studio analyst Matt Leinart, FOX Sports has announced the addition of Spencer Tillman and Steve Hutchinson to its game crews, while BTN reveals its two primary game broadcast teams and studio desk.
Tillman reunites with play-by-play announcer Tim Brando, his longtime colleague and partner at CBS, to call games on FOX Sports 1. The pair worked together for 15 years, from 1999 until Brando joined FOX Sports prior to the 2014 season, in the CBS college football studio, where Tillman was lead analyst and Brando was host of “College Football Today.” A running back at Oklahoma, Tillman helped lead the Sooners to the 1985 National Championship before being drafted by the Houston Oilers and playing eight seasons in the league.
Hutchinson joins FOX Sports after a collegiate and professional career that included being a four-year starter and four-time All-Big Ten selection at Michigan and earning All-America honors and being named the conference’s Offensive Lineman of the Year in 2000. Taken by the Seattle Seahawks with the 17th overall selection in the 2001 NFL Draft, Hutchinson played every game from 2003 to 2009, a span of 112 consecutive starts, and was voted to seven straight Pro Bowls. He was named a first-team All-Pro by the Associated Press five times and was one of two guards on the Pro Football Hall of Fame All-Decade First Team for the 2000s.
Hutchinson rotates with Petros Papadakis in the analyst chair alongside play-by-play announcer Justin Kutcher calling game action throughout the season. In Week 1, Kutcher, Hutchinson and Papadakis kick off the season together calling Purdue at Marshall on Sunday, Sept. 6, at 3:00 PM ET on FOX Sports 1.
Papadakis has been with FOX Sports since 2004 and has worked as a national college football studio and game analyst since FOX Sports 1 launched in 2013. A former tailback at USC, he continues to host the popular afternoon-drive radio program, “The Petros and Money Show” on 570 AM in Los Angeles.
The two new broadcast teams join those previously announced, Gus Johnson, Joel Klatt and Molly McGrath, and Joe Davis, Brady Quinn and Kris Budden. Johnson, Klatt and McGrath are on the call for FOX Sports 1’s season-opener, as Michigan faces Utah on Thursday, Sept. 3, marking Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh’s first game on the Wolverines sideline, with coverage beginning at 7:00 PM ET. Davis, Quinn and Budden open the season in Los Angeles on Saturday, Sept. 5, as Virginia faces UCLA at 3:30 PM ET, broadcast nationally on local FOX stations. Host Rob Stone joins Leinart and Dave Wannstedt in studio every Saturday for pregame, halftime and postgame coverage on FOX broadcast network and FOX Sports 1. College football insiders Bruce Feldman, Stewart Mandel and Clay Travis also contribute to FOX Sports’ extensive coverage on television and online at FOXSports.com.
FOX Sports partners with Big Ten Network to provide fans extended coverage from across the country. BTN features two primary broadcast teams during the 2015 season, led by the addition of former Penn State standout and four-time Super Bowl champion Matt Millen. Millen makes his BTN debut alongside accomplished play-by-play announcer Kevin Kugler and veteran sideline reporter Lisa Byington. Glen Mason, the former Ohio State linebacker (1970-71) and Minnesota head coach (1997-2006), teams with Eric Collins, who handles play-by-play, and sideline reporter Rebecca Harlow.
BTN also provides an array of in-studio personalities, led by Dave Revsine, Gerry DiNardo and Howard Griffith. Revsine, DiNardo and Griffith anchor the network’s gameday studio coverage for the ninth consecutive year. Mike Hall and Rick Pizzo contribute to additional studio shows throughout the week, and studio analysts include Wannstedt and former Ohio State quarterback Stanley Jackson in addition to others throughout the season…
…Everton and U.S. Men’s National Team goalkeeper Tim Howard joins NBC Sports Group’s lead Premier League play-by-play announcer Arlo White in the booth to call Chelea-Manchester City this Sunday. Howard calls Manchester City-Chelsea just one day after suiting up for Everton’s match against Southampton (Sat., August 15, 7:45 a.m. ET on NBCSN). NBC presents a live, 1.5-hour Match of the Day at 12:30 p.m. ET. Rebecca Lowe hosts the program, joined by former Major League Soccer and U.S. Men’s National Team midfielder Kyle Martino and former Premier League footballer Robbie Mustoe…
…Former Michigan head football coach Brady Hoke has joined the roster of hosts on SiriusXM College Sports Nation, SiriusXM’s 24/7 college sports channel. Hoke will host SiriusXM College Sports Today twice a week (4:00-7:00 pm ET) throughout the college football season alongside Mark Packer. He will make his debut on the channel this Tuesday, August 18. Hoke began his college coaching career in 1982 and would go on to earn Coach of the Year honors in three different conferences – the MAC (2008), Mountain West (2010) and Big Ten (2011). He began as an assistant at Grand Valley State, Western Michigan, Toledo, Oregon State and Michigan before taking on his first head-coaching job at his alma mater, Ball State. In 2008, Hoke was hired as the head football coach at San Diego State University. Hoke returned to Michigan in 2011 when he was hired to be the program’s 19th head football coach, serving from 2011-2014…
…In other SiriusXM news, former PGA TOUR professional and TV analyst Mark Lye and longtime radio personality Bruce Murray will host a new weekly show on SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio. Time to Let it Fly with Murray & Lye will debut this Tuesday, August 18 (8:00-9:00 pm ET) and will air every Tuesday night. Lye has previously been an analyst on SiriusXM’s pre- and post-round coverage.
Originally from Napa Valley, California, Lye attended San Jose State University, where he was a three-time All-American. He joined the PGA TOUR in 1977 after playing two years overseas. His career is highlighted by victories in Europe, Australia and the U.S. He won the Order of Merit title in Australia in 1976/1977. In an 18-year span on the PGA TOUR he recorded 41 top-10 finishes, including a victory at the 1983 Bank of Boston Classic. After retiring from the PGA TOUR and during his time as a TV analyst he played in 45 Champions Tour events over six years, where he had two top-10 and eight top-25 finishes.
Bruce Murray has hosted several shows on SiriusXM since joining the company in 2005. In addition to Time to Let it Fly, Murray hosts The SiriusXM Blitz alongside former NFL MVP Rich Gannon on the SiriusXM NFL Radio channel.
