Fox Sports Has Come a Long Way, Baby

MIKE REYNOLDS

In going from tractor pulls, Pro Beach Soccer and Women's World Water Ski Tour to covering MLB, NFL and NASCAR, one can say the national programming lineup for Fox Sports Net has improved dramatically as the network has grown over the past four years.

FSN debuted Nov 1, 1996, in roughly 30 million homes. Eight months later, in June 1997, a blueprint mirroring the network's configuration was formed through an alliance between Cablevision's Rainbow Media and Fox/Liberty, which reached 55 million homes.

Today, FSN, through its 21 regional sports networks, is now in more than 70 million homes. Fox wholly owns 10 of the 21 regional nets, with an 11th, Minneapolis-based Midwest Sports Channel, expected to join the fold shortly, pending the finalization of a deal with Comcast/Viacom.

Geared on a model that turns on game coverage of regional pro teams and some college action during primetime, FSN also serves up national programming for the regional affiliates, a schedule that has been upgraded significantly over the past four years.

"When we started out, there were lots of sports with roller wheels and sand. Not that there's anything wrong with that for people who enjoy those kinds of competiton," says FSN president Tracy Dolgin, doing his best Seinfeld imitation. "But I wouldn't say there was a lot of strong programming on the networks other than the coverage of the local pro team's games. Essentially, our mission was to find and provide quality programming for the hours the local team's games weren't on."

Starting out with Big 12, Pac 10 and Conference USA football and basketball and Fox Sports News, which subsequently evolved into the National Sports Report last April, FSN began buttressing its national mix over the years with the addition of such shows as Hardcore Football, Jim Rome's The Last Word, Goin' Deep and NFL This Morning.

On the event side, FSN began airing Baseball Thursday in April 1997 to a national audience and has added Formula One auto racing, NFL Europe and the early rounds of PGA events.

This past summer has been the busiest period for FSN. The Keith Olbermann Evening News bowed in August, while dedicated regional news began running at both 11 p.m. and early evening (6:30 or 7 p.m. depending on the region) in all the Fox-owned and Rainbow-managed regionals.

While pleased with the progress of the largest undertaking in FSN's history, Dolgin emphasizes that much work lies ahead in shaping the regional newscasts.

"We have to emphasize our localism and become more Fox-like," he says. "Our goal is to be totally objective in our news coverage but then put ourselves in the viewers' shoes. In our editorial slant we want the home team to do well. We also have to be more on edge. Sports is another form of entertainment, and we think it should be presented as such."

To that end, Dolgin says the regional newscasts could take some cues from the expanded NFL This Morning, which has added "The Breakfast Bunch" of Bob Golic, Billy Ray Smith, Sean Jones and comedian Jay Mohr to the team of Marv Levy, Jackie Slater, Chris Spielman and host Chris Myers. The program integrates game day football news and updates with humor and hijinks.

This summer, FSN also struck a 10-year deal with the Atlantic Coast Conference for an exclusive Sunday night basketball package. The "ACC Sunday Night Game of the Week" begins in December, with non-conference games featuring ACC teams tipping in November.

"With our PAC-10 games on Thursday and ACC action on Sunday, FSN has exclusive national windows to arguably the two best basketball conferences in the country," says Dolgin.

In the new year, FSN will further bolster its Sunday night schedule via documentary series fare. Beyond The Glory is slated to debut Jan. 7, with the one-hour program tracing some of biggest names in sports, as well as memorable teams or moments. Twenty-six episodes will be produced for 2001.

Dolgin says the series will not focus heavily on the careers of its contemporary subjects, but rather on "their lives outside of sports. Most of the people are still living and/or playing. These will be personal stories without a lot of footage. This is not (ESPN's) SportsCentury. We won't be chronologically recapping Ty Cobb's career. In spirit, Beyond the Glory will be more VH1 (Behind The Music) than A&E's Biography."

Starting in February, Dolgin says FSN will also begin driving a primetime Monday evening show reviewing and previewing NASCAR, which will make its debut on Fox with the Daytona 500.

The new year might also see an expansion of You Gotta See This. The half-hour weekly show, described as "a constant reel of craziness," featuring car crashes, line drives hitting players, bloopers and the like, has quickly become FSN's highest-rated weekly entry, generating ratings between 1 and 1.5. Although it airs principally on Saturdays at 11:30 p.m., the show has been floated by the regionals to fill in various time slots. Buoyed by these early returns, FSN is considering stripping the program.

As for the possibility of FSN playing home to some MLB divisional series action in the wake of Fox recently grabbing exclusive post-season rights, Dolgin says Fox executives will sit down after the World Series to devise a lineup that maximizes the property for the company's various holdings.

DIETRICH DOINGS Turner Classic Movies will air a one-hour documentary about Marlene Dietrich late next year. The vintage film network will air the documentary, tentatively titled: Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song, in December 2001 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the German actress' birth. The documentary traces Dietrich's show and movie careers, as well as her efforts on behalf of Allied troops during World War II. Among the interviewees for the film: Rosemary Clooney, Burt Bacharach and Paramount publicist A.C. Lyles. MGM is in final talks for video distribution rights, and there is a possibility of a limited theatrical release. A TCM spokesman says both of those windows wouldn't be explored until 2002, after the film's run on the network.

FIDEL FILM Showtime has greenlit a miniseries about Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Fidel will chronicle the life of Castro and his rise to power. It is expected to premiere on the premium network in mid- to late 2001. Shooting for the project began this month. Victor Huggo Martin (Sex, Shame & Tears) has the title role, and Tony Plana (Resurrection Boulevard and JFK) plays Batista, who preceded Castro as Cuban President. Gael Garcia Bernal is Castro comrade Che Guevara, while Hector Elizondo portrays left-wing radio commentator Eddie Chibas, who greatly influenced Castro.