172-514: Fox NFL Sunday is an American sports television program broadcast on the Fox television network. The show debuted on September 4, 1994, and serves as the pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL) game telecasts under the NFL on Fox brand. An audio simulcast of the program airs on sister radio network Fox Sports Radio , which is distributed by Premiere Radio Networks . As of 2014,
344-480: A blind trust and then sold directly to Fox due to conflicts with FCC ownership rules ], and one NBC affiliate ) that it had either already owned outright or was in the process of acquiring from Citicasters and Argyle Communications at the time to Fox starting in September 1994 and continuing as existing affiliation contracts with their existing major network partners expired. That summer, SF Broadcasting ,
516-807: A minor league affiliate of the Cardinals, and was a reporter for ESPN 's coverage of the Triple-A All-Star Game in 1989. In 1991, he did reporting for St Louis' CBS affiliate KMOV . Also, in 1991 Buck began broadcasting for the Cardinals on local television and KMOX Radio, filling in while his father was working on CBS telecasts. In the 1992–93 season, he was the play-by-play voice for University of Missouri basketball broadcasts. Buck continued to call Cardinals games after being hired by Fox Sports, initially with his father on KMOX and later on FSN Midwest television. As his network duties increased, however, his local workload shrank, and before
688-558: A 20% stake in New World Communications , a television and film production company controlled by investor Ronald Perelman that had just recently entered into broadcasting through its 1993 purchase of seven stations owned by SCI Television . As a result of Fox acquiring a 20% minority interest in the company, New World signed an agreement to switch the affiliations of twelve stations (eight CBS affiliates, three ABC affiliates [ two of which were subsequently placed in
860-1157: A 50% interest in TCF Holdings, the parent company of the 20th Century Fox film studio. In May 1985, News Corporation, a media company owned by Australian publishing magnate Rupert Murdoch that had mainly served as a newspaper publisher at the time of the TCF Holdings deal, agreed to pay $ 2.55 billion to acquire independent television stations in six major U.S. cities from the John Kluge -run broadcasting company Metromedia : WNEW-TV in New York City, WTTG in Washington, D.C., KTTV in Los Angeles, KRIV-TV in Houston, WFLD -TV in Chicago, and KRLD-TV in Dallas. A seventh station, ABC affiliate WCVB-TV in Boston,
1032-528: A Multi-Millionaire? , Temptation Island , Married by America , and Joe Millionaire (which became the first Fox program to crack the Nielsen Top 10), as well as video clip shows such as World's Wildest Police Videos and When Animals Attack! . After shedding most of these programs, Fox gradually filled its lineup with acclaimed dramas such as 24 , The O.C. , House , and Bones , and comedies such as The Bernie Mac Show , Malcolm in
1204-416: A collapse in viewership during the 2012–13 season ; American Idol and Glee suffered steep ratings declines, while the network as a whole fell to third place (suffering an overall decrease by 22%) in total viewership and to second place in the 18–49 demographic (where it remained as of 2014 ) by the end of the season. The decline in ratings continued into the 2013–14 season , with Fox placing fourth among
1376-910: A contract with the NFL to televise games from the National Football Conference (NFC)—which had been airing its games on CBS since 1956 —starting with the 1994 season . The initial four-year contract, which Fox bid $ 1.58 billion to obtain—while CBS offered $ 295 million per year to retain the rights —also included the exclusive U.S. television rights to Super Bowl XXXI in 1997 . The network also lured Pat Summerall , John Madden , Dick Stockton , Matt Millen , James Brown , Terry Bradshaw , and behind-the-scenes production personnel, from CBS Sports to staff its NFL coverage. Shortly afterward, News Corporation began striking affiliation deals with, and later purchasing, more television station groups. On May 23, 1994, Fox agreed to purchase
1548-552: A default Fox affiliate at the time; it would manage to reach a total of 1.3 million subscribers by 1992. As Fox gradually headed towards carrying a full week's worth of programming in prime time through the addition of programming on Thursday and Friday nights at the start of the 1990–91 season , the network's added offerings included the scheduling of The Simpsons opposite veteran NBC sitcom The Cosby Show as part of Fox's initial Thursday night lineup that fall (along with future hit Beverly Hills, 90210 , which would become
1720-539: A few successful shows like the science fiction drama The X-Files , Fox still lacked credibility among viewers. Even those working in television thought of the network as "the one that has that cartoon show" ( The Simpsons ). More than 85% of affiliates in 1993 were UHF stations. Fox became a viable competitor to the older networks when it won broadcast television rights to the National Football League (NFL) away from CBS . In December 1993, Fox signed
1892-454: A few weeks, however, and the network was unable to reach a deal with Hall to return as host when it hurriedly revived The Late Show in early 1988. The Late Show went back to featuring guest hosts, eventually selecting Ross Shafer as its permanent host, only for it to be canceled for good by October 1988, while Hall signed a deal with Paramount Television to develop his own syndicated late night talk show, The Arsenio Hall Show . Fox aired
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#17327800457732064-442: A first-run series on Comedy Central , where it ran from 2010 to 2013. Less successful efforts included The Critic , starring Saturday Night Live alumnus Jon Lovitz (which Fox picked up in 1994 after it was cancelled by ABC, only for the series to be cancelled again after its second season), and The PJs (which moved to The WB in 2000, after Fox cancelled that series after its second season). Other notable shows that debuted in
2236-529: A five-year contract valued at $ 205 million per-year. The network also began to increase its non-scripted output, announcing the new celebrity music competition series The Masked Singer (based on the South Korean format King of Mask Singer ), and the new game shows Mental Samurai and Spin the Wheel for the 2018–19 season. In August 2018, Fox Television Group CEO Dana Walden stated that
2408-516: A fourth network had failed because it programmed just under the number of hours defined by the FCC to legally be considered a network. This allowed Fox to make revenue in ways forbidden to the established networks (for instance, it did not have to adhere to the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules that were in effect at the time), since during its first years it was considered to be merely
2580-472: A half-hour series as part of the network's mainly comedy-based Sunday lineup for its first season, before expanding to an hour and moving to Fridays for the 1990–91 season). These two series, which would become staples on the network for just over two decades, would eventually be paired to form the nucleus of Fox's Saturday night schedule beginning in the 1994–95 season . Meanwhile, Married... with Children , which differentiated itself from other family sitcoms of
2752-535: A hug from McGwire, which led to criticisms of Buck's on-air professionalism from some sources. In January 2005, Buck drew fire (attracting angry criticism) for his on-air comments during an NFL playoff game between the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers . After Vikings wide receiver Randy Moss simulated mooning the Green Bay crowd in the end zone, Buck called it a "disgusting act". The moon
2924-559: A joint venture between Fox and Savoy Pictures that was founded in March 1994, purchased four stations from Burnham Broadcasting ( three NBC affiliates and one ABC affiliate ); through a separate agreement, those stations would also switch to Fox between September 1995 and January 1996 as existing affiliation agreements lapsed. These two deals were not the first instances in which a longtime "Big Three" station affiliated with Fox: in Miami,
3096-503: A large group of stations. By comparison, DuMont had been saddled by numerous regulatory barriers that hampered its potential to grow, most notably a ban on acquiring additional stations, during an era when the FCC had much tighter ownership limits for television stations (limiting broadcasters to a maximum of five stations nationwide) than it did when Fox launched. In addition, Murdoch was more than willing to open his wallet to get and keep programming and talent. DuMont, in contrast, operated on
3268-409: A large loyal fanbase that turned the show into a cult favorite. In 2009, Glee premiered to average ratings when its pilot aired as a lead-out program of the eighth-season finale of American Idol , but earned positive reviews from critics. The cast of the series has been acknowledged by Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey , who have each asked the cast to perform live for various national events. At
3440-507: A large, loyal international fanbase. At the same time, Fox's live telecast of the Super Bowl XLV helped the network emerge as the first U.S. television network to earn an average single-night prime time audience of at least 100 million viewers. American Idol lost its first place standing among all network prime time programs during the 2011–12 finale (falling to second that season behind NBC Sunday Night Football ), ending
3612-469: A mediocre ratings performance, before viewership rose significantly midway through its first season following Heather Locklear 's addition to the cast), its own short lived spin-off Models Inc. , and family drama Party of Five . The early and mid-1990s also saw the network launch several series aimed at a black audience, which, in addition to Martin , included the sitcom Living Single and police procedural New York Undercover . Despite having
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#17327800457733784-489: A new but short-lived sitcom ( Love and Marriage ) to the night at the beginning of the 1996–97 season backfired with the public, as it resulted in a brief cancellation of America's Most Wanted that was criticized by law enforcement and public officials, and was roundly rejected by viewers, which brought swift cancellation to the newer series. Married... quickly returned to Sundays (before moving again to Mondays two months later); both it and Martin would end their runs at
3956-535: A non-Big Three network on primetime). By 2016, Empire and The X-Files ranked in the Nielsen Top 10 for the season, the first season with 2 Fox programs entering the top rankings since the American Idol - House tandem of the 2007–2008 season (and the first ever season that Fox achieved such rankings without American Idol or any other reality television show from Fox in the Top 10). The same year also marked
4128-491: A popular fixture on the program, in which the four hosts were depicted as animated characters in live-action situations , usually starring real-life NFL players. Beginning with the 1999 season, comedian Jimmy Kimmel (then the co-host of Comedy Central 's The Man Show and Win Ben Stein's Money ) began making weekly game predictions and performing comedy skits on the show; the following year , Jillian Barberie (then
4300-481: A prejudice that surpassed objective reporting." Buck also received criticism from other members of the media who felt he "over-reacted" and was being "inconsistent" given his network's history of programming. Buck was much more restrained in his call of the New York Jets ' Isaiah Crowell using the football to simulate cleaning himself after defecation during a 2018 Thursday Night Football contest against
4472-443: A second-tier independent station in markets where a more established independent declined the affiliation (such as Denver , Phoenix and St. Louis ). Largely because of both these factors, Fox in a situation very similar to what DuMont had experienced four decades before had little choice but to affiliate with UHF stations in all except a few (mainly larger) markets where the network gained clearance. Then-Fox Inc. head Barry Diller
4644-606: A series of affiliation realignments between all four U.S. television networks involving individual stations and various broadcasting groups such as those between CBS and Group W (whose corporate parent later bought the network in August 1995), and ABC and the E. W. Scripps Company (which owned three Fox affiliates that switched to either ABC or NBC as a result of the New World deal) affecting 30 television markets between September 1994 and September 1996. The two deals also had
4816-414: A shoestring budget and was unable to keep the programs and stars it had. Most of the other startup networks that launched in later years (such as UPN and The WB ) followed Fox's model as well. Furthermore, DuMont operated during a time when the FCC did not require television manufacturers to include UHF capability. To see DuMont's UHF stations, most people had to buy an expensive converter . Even then,
4988-408: A sponsorship agreement with Ford Motor Company ) would resume studio broadcasts for the 2007 season , with Curt Menefee assuming full-time hosting duties and Joe Buck reverting to play-by-play only. Jillian Reynolds, who was coming off maternity leave, returned full-time as the program's weather anchor. However, the pre-game show was on-site at Lambeau Field for the 2007 NFC Championship Game between
5160-544: A three-way tie for 29th place in the Nielsen ratings, it became a breakout hit and was the first Fox series to break the Top 30. The Simpsons , at 35 years as of 2024, is the longest-running American sitcom, the longest-running American animated program, and the longest-running American scripted primetime television series. In 1989, Fox also first introduced the documentary series Cops and crime-focused magazine program America's Most Wanted (the latter of which debuted as
5332-494: A time, made Fox Television Stations the largest owner of television stations in the U.S. (a title that has since been assumed by the Sinclair Broadcast Group , one of the network's largest affiliate groups). Fox completed its prime time expansion to all seven nights on January 19, 1993 , with the launch of two additional nights of programming on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (The method of gradually adding nights to
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5504-868: Is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by the Fox Entertainment division of Fox Corporation , headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan . Fox hosts additional offices at the Fox Network Center in Los Angeles and at the Fox Media Center in Tempe, Arizona . Launched as a competitor to the Big Three television networks ( ABC , CBS , and NBC ) in 1986, Fox went on to become
5676-503: Is named after the film studio that was originally called 20th Century Fox (the network's corporate sibling prior to that studio's acquisition by The Walt Disney Company ) and after the producer William Fox , who had founded one of the film studio's predecessors, Fox Film , before it was merged with 20th Century Pictures in 1935. Fox is a member of the North American Broadcasters Association and
5848-510: Is no additional cost to conduct the flyovers. Meanwhile, Buck and Aikman faced accusations of being unpatriotic. Joe Buck said the comments were taken out of context and were sarcasm not meant for broadcast. On January 2, 2023, Buck served as the announcer for a Monday Night Football game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals in which Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered sudden cardiac arrest . Buck claimed four times on
6020-462: Is only the third announcer to handle a television network's lead MLB and NFL coverage in the same year (following NBC 's Curt Gowdy and ABC 's Al Michaels ). By 2002, his Fox duties forced him to cut his local Cardinals schedule to 25 games. (Eventually, Buck left the Cardinals altogether to join Fox Sports "full-time" in 2008.) Notable games he called included Super Bowl XLII , Miracle at
6192-440: Is the most-watched program on U.S. television by seasonal average viewership in the 2000s decade, as well as the most recent program scheduled to have successfully established a graveyard slot on U.S. television since the end of NBC's Friends in 2004 and the subsequent decline of NBC's previously dominant " Must See TV " Thursday timeblock. By 2005, reality television succeeded sitcoms as the most popular form of entertainment in
6364-466: The New York Post reported on April 17, 2021, that Buck would serve as a guest host on Jeopardy! as the game show continues to search for a replacement after the death of longtime host Alex Trebek . Sony Pictures Television confirmed four days later that Buck's stint would air from August 9 to 13. In 2021, Buck and his family appeared on ABC's Celebrity Family Feud , competing against
6536-432: The 1992 World Series for CBS at the age of 30. McDonough had replaced Jack Buck as CBS's lead baseball play-by-play man after he was fired in late 1991. On September 8, 1998, Buck called Mark McGwire 's 62nd home run that broke Roger Maris ' single-season record. The game was nationally televised live in prime time on Fox. It was a rarity for a nationally televised regular season game not to be aired on cable since
6708-460: The 1997–98 season , Fox had three shows in the Nielsen Top 20 (in terms of total viewers); The X-Files (which ranked 11th), King of the Hill (which ranked 15th) and The Simpsons (which ranked 18th), all of which aired on Sunday nights. Building around its flagship animated comedy The Simpsons , Fox would experience relative success with animated sitcoms in prime time, beginning with the debut of
6880-474: The 2008 season, it was announced that he would no longer be calling Cardinals telecasts for FSN Midwest. This marked the first time since 1960 that a member of the Buck family was not part of the team's broadcasting crew. In 1994 , Buck was hired by Fox , and at the age of 25 became the youngest man ever to announce a regular slate of National Football League (NFL) games on network television. In 1996, he
7052-410: The 2022 season to Fox. In May 2022, Buck made his on-air debut at ESPN during the 2022 PGA Championship , hosting an alternate broadcast on ESPN2 and ESPN+ produced by Peyton and Eli Manning , featuring ESPN golf analyst Michael Collins and other celebrity guests. Buck was offered to fill in for an ESPN-broadcast MLB game as well, but declined, telling a Sports Illustrated podcast that he
Fox NFL Sunday - Misplaced Pages Continue
7224-721: The 39th Primetime Emmy Awards and would air the next five editions. Although the network had modest successes in Married... with Children and The Tracy Ullman Show , several affiliates were disappointed with Fox's largely underperforming programming lineup during the network's first three years, KMSP-TV in Minneapolis and KPTV in Portland, Oregon , both owned at the time by Chris-Craft Television , disaffiliated from Fox in 1988 (with KITN (now WFTC ) and KPDX respectively replacing those stations as Fox affiliates), citing that
7396-563: The Cleveland Browns . "That will draw a flag every time," Buck simply commented. In 2007, Buck was scheduled to call only eight regular-season MLB games out of a 26-game schedule for Fox (along with a handful of regional Cardinals telecasts on FSN Midwest). In an interview with Richard Sandomir of the New York Times , he defended his reduced baseball commitment: If you or the casual fan doesn't want to consider me
7568-630: The Electric Slide ; during the Fox broadcast of a Denver Broncos game on December 11, 2011, he also Tebowed (the kneeling prayer position popularized by former Broncos player Tim Tebow ). Games aired on the weekend following New Year's Day typically show Cleatus sitting on a bench holding an ice pack to his head, as if nursing a hangover. During the MLB postseason in October until the conclusion of
7740-501: The Fox NFL Sunday crew on location from Soldier Field . After Buck joined Aikman for play-by-play duties, Menefee took over as host for the remainder of the game and hosted the halftime and postgame shows. Terry Bradshaw handled the trophy ceremony during the postgame show. 2006–2007 on-location broadcast sites In March 2007, it was announced that the program (then branded on-air as The Built Ford Tough Fox NFL Sunday , via
7912-673: The Fox Television Stations group. With the sole exception of KDAF (which was sold to Renaissance Broadcasting in 1995, at which time it became an affiliate of The WB ), all of the original owned-and-operated stations ("O&Os") are still part of the Fox network today. Like the core O&O group, Fox's affiliate body initially consisted of independent stations (a few of which had maintained affiliations with ABC, NBC, CBS, or DuMont earlier in their existences). The local charter affiliate was, in most cases, that market's top-rated independent; however, Fox opted to affiliate with
8084-649: The Los Angeles Dodgers , to be played five miles away at Dodger Stadium . However, Buck chose to concentrate on baseball, citing traffic concerns in Los Angeles and already being busy calling the NFL and MLB simultaneously. Thom Brennaman , who had served as Buck's fill-in during the MLB postseason in the past, handled the Packers-Rams game. In April 2014, it was announced that Buck would team with Greg Norman to anchor Fox's new package of United States Golf Association telecasts, most prominently
8256-761: The Los Angeles Kings inevitably scored a power-play goal on the Blues (joking in response that "I clearly bring no mojo to the party"). In 2014, Buck was named as the new host of NFL Films Presents , to coincide with the program's move from ESPN2 to Fox Sports 1 . From 2015 to 2018, Buck hosted Undeniable with Joe Buck , a sports interview series on Audience Network . Buck published an autobiography, Lucky Bastard , in 2016. He has appeared in several television programs as himself, including Pitch , American Dad! , Family Guy , Conan , The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon , and Brockmire ;
8428-652: The Mike Judge -produced King of the Hill in 1997. Family Guy (the first of three adult-oriented animated series from Seth MacFarlane to air on the network) and Futurama (from Simpsons creator Matt Groening ) would make their debuts in 1999; however, they were canceled in 2002 and 2003 respectively. Due to strong DVD sales and highly rated cable reruns on Cartoon Network 's Adult Swim , Fox later decided to order new episodes of Family Guy , which began airing in 2005. Futurama would be revived with four direct-to-DVD films between 2007 and 2009 and would return as
8600-659: The National Association of Broadcasters . 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios ) had been involved in television production as early as the 1950s, producing several syndicated programs . Following the demise of the DuMont Television Network in August 1956, after it became mired in severe financial problems, the NTA Film Network was launched as a new "fourth network". 20th Century Fox would also produce original content for
8772-530: The New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers and at Super Bowl XLII . For the 2007 season, Fox NFL Sunday introduced a new feature, a pre-recorded segment titled "Grumpy Old Coaches", in which Jimmy Johnson and fellow former Dallas Cowboys head coach Barry Switzer discuss the past week in football. A segment of highlights and commentary of the previous day's college football games
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#17327800457738944-804: The San Francisco Bay to call Game 1 of the NLCS between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park at 5:15 PM PDT. The opportunity presented itself again on October 28, 2018, when Fox would carry the Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as its featured NFL game before Game 5 of the 2018 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and
9116-602: The U.S. Open tournament. The pair made their broadcast debut at the Franklin Templeton Shootout (an event also hosted by Norman) on December 12–14, 2014. Norman was fired by Fox and replaced with Paul Azinger in 2016. On February 5, 2009, Buck signed with HBO to host a sports-based talk show for the network called Joe Buck Live , with a format similar to that of Costas Now , the monthly HBO program previously hosted by Bob Costas . The show's debut on June 15, 2009, made national headlines due to
9288-556: The World Series (both of which air on Fox), the character is also seen taking baseballs from a basket and hitting them with a bat towards the background. Cleatus is usually replaced with a robotic turkey during Fox's Thanksgiving NFL game broadcasts. Fox has since manufactured an action figure of the character, which it sells on the Fox Sports website, available in the character's normal appearance as well as in special uniforms customized for all 32 NFL franchises. In response to
9460-439: The World Series . From 2016 to 2021, he was paired with color analyst John Smoltz and field reporter Ken Rosenthal . Besides working with Tim McCarver for 18 seasons (1996–2013), Buck also worked with former MLB player and current MLB Network/Fox Sports analyst Harold Reynolds and baseball insider Tom Verducci for 2 seasons (2014–2015). About a month or two after the 2015 World Series , Reynolds and Verducci were demoted to
9632-437: The finale of American Idol in its original run on Fox after airing for fifteen seasons, ending an era of one of the most successful shows in U.S. television history. In February 2017, Fox broadcast Super Bowl LI , which attracted an average 111.3 million viewers—ranking among the top five most-watched Super Bowl games, and the second-highest audience in network history behind Super Bowl XLVIII. In March 2017, Rob Wade
9804-500: The longest streak at#1 for a prime time broadcast network series in U.S. television history, through its eight-year ratings domination in both the Adults 18–49 demographic and total viewership. Idol also remained in the Nielsen Top 10 for eleven years from 2003 to 2013 , and became the highest-rated non- sports prime time television program as well as the highest-rated reality series in the U.S. from 2003 to 2012. these records marked
9976-450: The popular 1980s action series of the same name to promote the network's NFL coverage. Initially, the vacated fourth seat was to feature a rotating series of guest analysts, with Jimmy Johnson returning in Week 1. John Elway sat in during Week 2. For Week 3, Johnson returned, and took over the position permanently (he remains on the program to this day). Jimmy Kimmel left the program after
10148-529: The second most-watched television broadcast (by average) in U.S. history, and the lead-out programs that followed this event – New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine . Later, in May 2014, Kevin Reilly announced that he would resign as chairman of Fox Entertainment. On July 15, 2014, then-corporate parent 21st Century Fox announced that it would merge the operations of the network and 20th Century Fox Television into
10320-420: The " Twitter Tracker", which scrolls tweets from NFL players and coaches. On August 2, 2012, Frank Caliendo announced on his official Twitter account that he would not return to Fox NFL Sunday as a prognosticator for the 2012 season; comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member Rob Riggle was eventually named as his replacement. On December 6, 2015, a special two-hour edition of Fox NFL Sunday
10492-494: The "Joe Buck Classic", a celebrity pro-am golf tournament that is played each May to raise money for St. Louis Children's Hospital . In 2007, Buck filmed a pilot episode for a prospective late-night talk and comedy program with former Saturday Night Live writer and director Matt Piedmont . Piedmont and Buck wrote and produced the pilot with Piedmont directing, filming in New York City and Los Angeles, and featuring Molly Shannon , David Spade , and Paul Rudd . Buck co-hosted
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#173278004577310664-589: The #2 team and John Smoltz moved up from the #2 team (with Matt Vasgersian ) to take Reynolds and Verducci's places. From 1996 to 2021, Buck called 23 World Series and 21 All-Star Games for Fox, the most of any play-by-play announcer on network television. As the lead play-by-play announcer for MLB on Fox, Buck called games between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox that were broadcast on Fox and FS1. He called many notable moments in
10836-490: The 2001 season, Buck occasionally filled in for Curt Menefee as Fox's number-six play-by-play man. Buck became Fox's top play-by-play man in 2002 , replacing Pat Summerall . For many seasons, he was teamed with Troy Aikman as color commentator and Erin Andrews as the sideline reporter . (Buck also worked with Cris Collinsworth from 2002 to 2004, before the latter's move to Showtime , NFL Network , and NBC .) Buck
11008-580: The 2002 season a month before the premiere of his late-night talk show on ABC , Jimmy Kimmel Live! . He was replaced by comedian Frank Caliendo – at the time, a cast member on Fox's late night sketch comedy series MADtv – who had previously guest starred during Kimmel's skits (performing his well-known impersonation of John Madden). Caliendo's prognostication skits began to feature his various spot-on celebrity impersonations, including Madden, Jay Leno , Jim Rome and George W. Bush , as well as show hosts Brown, Bradshaw, Long and Johnson. James Brown left
11180-486: The 2010 NFC Championship Game; the program held its Super Bowl XLV pregame show in Arlington, Texas on February 6, 2011. Starting with the 2011 NFL season , the show introduced a new feature called "Fox :45", which is usually formatted a sing-along parody of a famous song, or as a comedic sketch. The parodies and sketches usually relate to current events occurring during the football season. The program also introduced
11352-576: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s rules prohibiting a merger between any of the four major broadcast networks. As a result of the Disney/Fox deal, and with the merger of CBS and Viacom on December 4, 2019, Fox has become the only major U.S. broadcast network without attachment to any film studio . It was acknowledged that Fox had placed a larger emphasis on its sports programming in its first upfronts since
11524-553: The Fox network is a revival or at least a linear descendant of DuMont, since Metromedia was founded when DuMont spun off its two remaining owned-and-operated stations, WNEW-TV (then known as WABD) and WTTG, as DuMont Broadcasting (it later changed its name to Metropolitan Broadcasting before becoming Metromedia). Additionally, the former base of DuMont's operations, the DuMont Tele-Centre in Manhattan , eventually became
11696-477: The Middle , and Arrested Development . As the decade wore on, Fox began surpassing ABC and NBC in the ratings, first in age demographics, then in overall viewership, and placed second behind a resurgent CBS in total viewership, beginning in 2002 . Fox hit a major milestone in 2005 when it emerged as the most-watched U.S. broadcast network in the lucrative 18–49 demographic for the first time, largely boosted by
11868-488: The NTA network. The film network effort would fail after a few years, but 20th Century Fox continued to dabble in television through its production arm, TCF Television Productions, producing series (such as Perry Mason , Batman and M*A*S*H ) for the three major broadcast television networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS). The Fox network's foundations were laid in March 1985 through News Corporation 's $ 255 million purchase of
12040-595: The New Meadowlands , Super Bowl LI , the Minneapolis Miracle , and the final Green Bay Packers home game in Milwaukee at County Stadium . During the 2006 season, Buck briefly hosted Fox's pre-game show Fox NFL Sunday , with him and Curt Menefee jointly replacing James Brown . To accommodate his involvement, the show began to broadcast on-site from the location of Fox's top game of
12212-1083: The No. 1 baseball announcer at Fox, it's not my concern ... I don't know why it would matter. I don't know who had a more tiresome, wall-to-wall schedule than my father, and I know what it's like to be a kid in that situation ... He was gone a lot. He needed to be. I understood it. So did my mom. Because my career has gone the way it's gone, I don't have to go wall to wall. ...While I'm deathly afraid of overexposure, I'm more afraid of underexposure at home with my wife and girls. In 2008, Buck drew criticism for comments he made during an appearance on ESPN Radio 's The Herd with Colin Cowherd , in which he admitted to spending "barely any" time following sporting events he doesn't broadcast and facetiously claimed that he preferred watching The Bachelorette instead. In June 2015, Buck announced he had quit his Twitter account. Buck explained that he quit Twitter because he found himself engaging negative people and allowing criticism to affect how he
12384-608: The Red Sox in the 12th inning, Buck uttered, "We'll see you later tonight," alluding to the fact that the game had extended into the early morning. He also used the phrase at the end of Game 6 of the 2011 World Series when the Cardinals ' David Freese hit a walk-off home run in the 11th inning against the Rangers to send the series to a seventh game (it was 20 years and a day since Kirby Puckett's home run). The similarity of both
12556-711: The Robot would appear in war room-style backstage vignettes with actors portraying Fox executives making selections for the WWE Smackdown brand. Sky Sports in the United Kingdom , which was until October 2018 owned by 21st Century Fox , uses a modified version of the Cleatus opening sequence and sponsorship tags with their own branding. Fox Broadcasting Company Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps )
12728-403: The U.S. as a result of Fox's rise with American Idol and NBC's network declines. House , which aired as American Idol ' s lead-out program on Tuesday nights, earned international prominence in the 21st century and became Fox's first prime time drama series (and the network's third program overall) to reach the Nielsen Top 10 beginning 2006 . Beginning 2004 , CBS and Fox, which ranked as
12900-613: The advantage of offering programs intended to appeal toward a younger demographic – adults between 18 and 34 years of age – and that were edgier in content, whereas some programs that were carried by the "Big Three" networks attracted an older-skewing audience. Until the early 1990s, when Fox expanded its programming to additional nights and outside prime time, most Fox stations were still essentially formatted as independent stations – filling their schedules with mainly first-run and acquired programming, and, during prime time, running either syndicated programs or, more commonly, movies on nights when
13072-603: The affiliation moved from WCIX (channel 6) to NBC affiliate WSVN in January 1989 as the result of a complicated six-station affiliation swap in two South Florida markets spurred by NBC's purchase of CBS affiliate WTVJ (channel 4) and CBS's purchase of WCIX. WSVN immediately attracted industry notice for featuring a news-intensive tabloid format uncharacteristic of any Fox affiliate or independent station heretofore, with then-Fox network president Lucie Salhany calling WSVN "the future of television" in May 1994. WSVN remains
13244-539: The beginning of the 2010s, new comedies Raising Hope and New Girl gave Fox its first live-action comedy successes in years. The second season of Glee delivered that series' highest ratings during the 2010–11 season, with viewership peaking during its Super Bowl lead-out episode in February 2011 (marking the most expensive post-Super Bowl episode ever produced on U.S. television). The said show has continuously attracted worldwide media attention that it formed
13416-457: The broadcast that despite the life-threatening injury, he had been told the league was adamant to resume play within minutes. The NFL's executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent denied the claims, saying those plans were never relayed to Buck and called his comments "insensitive". The following day, Buck responded to the NFL and Vincent, and stood by the claim that he was told both teams had five minutes to warm-up before resuming
13588-533: The call and the game situation resulted in mentions on national news broadcasts. Another notable Red Sox game in the ALCS was in 2013 , Game 2 against the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park. The Red Sox were trailing 5–1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, with the bases loaded with David Ortiz at-bat. Ortiz hit a game-tying grand slam off Tigers' closer Joaquín Benoit . His call: "Hard hit into right, back at
13760-435: The careers of future movie stars Jim Carrey , Jamie Foxx , Damon Wayans , Marlon Wayans , Keenen Ivory Wayans , guest stars Chris Rock and Tim Meadows , and both members of the show's dance troupe, the "Fly Girls", Rosie Perez and Jennifer Lopez . The series also gained international prominence after Fox aired a special live episode in January 1992 as an alternative to the halftime show during Super Bowl XXVI , which
13932-620: The catchphrase, "Now that's a good call". Buck has also done local commercials in the St. Louis market for the Suntrup chain of automobile dealerships. He also contributes occasional opinion pieces to The Sporting News , and is a key contributor on KSLG/Team 1380 on the ITD Morning After program in St. Louis. In the week before calling Super Bowl XLVIII , Buck starred in a Web video for Funny or Die in which he tries to report on
14104-450: The course of a single season, as well as Fox's fourth program overall (and the first since the 2013 finale of American Idol ) to enter the Nielsen Top 10 by the end of the 2014–15 season. The 2015–16 season marked a notable turnaround for Fox, as it jumped ahead of ABC to third place in nationwide ratings (both in overall viewership and in the 18–49 demo) and posted several firsts for the network and on U.S. television. Its improvement
14276-416: The creation of Cleatus, Fox Sports created Digger, an animated gopher mascot for NASCAR on Fox telecasts; the character was originally seen only during the races when the in-track cameras knowns as the "Digger Cam" were shown, but his role soon expanded. Unlike Cleatus, however, Digger was not well received by fans, and sparked an internet and Twitter outcry for his removal from the broadcast. While Digger
14448-457: The day in the title. On August 13, 2006, Fox announced that Joe Buck and Curt Menefee would succeed James Brown as hosts of the program. Because Buck was already serving as the lead play-by-play announcer for the NFL on Fox game broadcasts, each week's edition of Fox NFL Sunday was broadcast from the site of the network's top game of the week, in a move similar to Fox's NASCAR coverage , in which
14620-545: The deal was announced, including the acquisitions of the NFL's Thursday Night Football package and rights to the FIFA World Cup . It was also noted that Fox had been increasingly pivoting towards programs that could generate large audiences, as opposed to ones that become successful primarily through critical acclaim. On June 27, 2018, WWE announced that SmackDown would move to Fox on Friday nights beginning October 4, 2019, following its run on USA Network , under
14792-439: The debut of MADtv on October 14, 1995; the sketch comedy series became a solid competitor to NBC's Saturday Night Live for over a decade and was the network's most successful late night program as well as one of its most successful Saturday night shows, running for 14 seasons until 2009. An attempt to make a larger effort to program Saturday nights by moving Married... with Children from its longtime Sunday slot and adding
14964-716: The debut of Fox News Channel in August 1996. Its sports operations expanded with the acquisition of controlling interests in several regional sports networks (including the Prime Network and SportsChannel ) between 1996 and 2000 to form Fox Sports Net (which launched in November 1996), its 2000 purchase of Speedvision (later Speed Channel, which was replaced in the United States by Fox Sports 1 in August 2013; however, it continues to exist in other North American and Caribbean countries as Fox Sports Racing ), and
15136-492: The end of that season. The Saturday schedule was revised in November 1996, to feature one new and one encore episode of Cops , and the revived America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back . Cops and AMW remained the anchors of Fox's Saturday lineup, making it the most stable night in American broadcast television for over 14 years; both shows eventually were among the few first-run programs remaining on Saturday evenings across
15308-491: The end of the Monday / Thursday Night Baseball era on ABC in 1989. During Fox's broadcast of the 2002 World Series , Buck paid implicit tribute to his father, who had died a few months earlier (he had read the eulogy at his father's funeral) by calling the final out of Game 6 (which tied the series at 3–3, and thus ensured there would be a Game 7 broadcast the next night) with the phrase, "We'll see you tomorrow night." This
15480-456: The fact that most fan bases, especially Major League Baseball fans, are used to hearing local announcers and not those working national broadcasts: "Fans are used to hearing their hometown guys. When you come at it objectively, people aren't used to it." Reporting from the field following the game in which Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris' single-season home run record in 1998, Buck began his postgame interview on Fox by requesting (and getting)
15652-468: The family of actor Oliver Hudson . In 2022, Buck became the announcer on Fox's Domino Masters hosted by Eric Stonestreet . Buck also competed in season seven of The Masked Singer as "Ram" of Team Bad. He was unmasked in the competition's second week at the time when Stonestreet was a guest panelist as he and Robin Thicke correctly guessed Buck during the final guesses. On May 24, 2024, Buck
15824-495: The film Fever Pitch (also starring Jimmy Fallon ); and in the "Carpet Brothers" sketch on Funny or Die Presents as The Legit Don Stritt. Buck's voice is also heard in recorded conversations between Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky calling Game 5 of the Yankees-Indians ALDS in 1997. The tapes were released at the height of the scandal involving Lewinsky and President Bill Clinton . Andrew Marchand of
15996-523: The four major networks after decreasing prime time viewership – as more people opted to engage in leisure activities away from home rather than watch television on that night of the week led ABC, NBC and CBS to largely abandon first-run series on Saturdays (outside newsmagazines , sports and burned off prime time shows that failed on other nights) in favor of reruns and movies by the mid-2000s. America's Most Wanted ended its 22-year run on Fox in June 2011, and
16168-637: The game during the 1980s, several station groups like Media Central and Pappas Telecasting had avoided Fox when the network launched, but joined the network later on. The network had its " grand opening " when it expanded its programming into prime time on April 5, 1987, inaugurating its Sunday night lineup with the premieres of the sitcom Married... with Children and the sketch comedy series The Tracey Ullman Show . The premieres of both series were rebroadcast twice following their initial airings (at 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 pm. Eastern/Pacific, respectively) that night, which Jamie Kellner , who served as
16340-475: The game from New York City but continues to get interrupted by locals who dislike him. On February 12, 2013, Buck made a guest appearance during Fox Sports Midwest's broadcast of a St. Louis Blues hockey game. Alongside their current commentators Darren Pang and John Kelly , he discussed his father Jack Buck having called Blues hockey along with Kelly's father Dan in the late 1960s. Buck briefly took over play-by-play from Pang and Kelly, stepping aside when
16512-440: The game-day forecast segments. During Weeks 16 and 17, Buck served as the full-time host from Hollywood, with the rest of the Fox NFL Sunday crew. Dick Stockton took over as the main play-by-play analyst alongside Troy Aikman and Pam Oliver , while Menefee returned to the booth as secondary play-by-play analyst alongside Daryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa . Though the show returned to Hollywood for two weeks, Jillian Reynolds
16684-411: The highest-rated U.S. television program overall starting with the 2003–04 season , becoming the first reality singing competition series in the country to reach first place in the seasonal ratings. American Idol remains the most recent U.S. television program to date to lead the national prime time ratings and attract at least 30 million viewers for multiple and consecutive television seasons. It
16856-531: The largest Fox affiliate in terms of market size to have entirely eschewed any prominent on-air branding with the network name. The NFC contract, in fact, was the impetus for the affiliation deal with New World and SF Broadcasting's purchase of the Burnham stations, as Fox sought to improve local coverage of its new NFL package by aligning the network with stations that had more established histories and advertiser value than its charter affiliates. The deals spurred
17028-515: The late 1990s included the quirky David E. Kelley -produced live-action dramedy Ally McBeal , the short-lived game show Greed , and the period comedy That '70s Show , the latter of which became Fox's second-longest-running live-action sitcom, airing for eight seasons. Throughout the 1990s and into the next decade, Fox launched a slate of cable channels beginning with the 1994 debuts of general entertainment network FX and movie channel FXM: Movies from Fox (now FX Movie Channel ), followed by
17200-489: The latter instance, he commonly gets attacked by a CGI character from the subject of the advertisement (such as Iron Man , a dragon from the movie Eragon , a T-1000 robot from the Fox drama Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles , and The Burger King , who taunted Cleatus by throwing objects at him). Cleatus is also seen doing various things such as hopping on two feet, playing an electric guitar , shaking out his limbs, and performing dance moves such as The Swim and
17372-466: The launches of Fox Sports World (later Fox Soccer , which was replaced by FXX in September 2013) and Fox Sports en Español (now Fox Deportes ) in the early 2000s. By 2000, many staple Fox shows of the 1990s had ended their runs. During the late 1990s and carrying over into the early 2000s, Fox put much of its efforts into producing reality shows many of which were considered to be sensationalistic and controversial in nature – such as Who Wants to Marry
17544-402: The longest Nielsen ratings streaks of any Fox program in these categories. The 2012 season finale of American Idol marked the end of the season-long 25th anniversary of the establishment of Fox network, helping it win in the 18–49 demographic for the eighth consecutive season, the longest such streak according to Nielsen measurement records (and still standing as of 2024). However, Fox suffered
17716-482: The major networks in total viewership for the first time since 2001 . Subsequently, on January 13, 2014, Fox announced that it would abandon its use of the standard concept of greenlighting shows through the initial order of pilot episodes during the designated "pilot season" (running from January through April), instead opting to pick up shows directly to series. Fox scored renewed ratings successes with its February 2014 live telecast of Super Bowl XLVIII , which became
17888-409: The most successful attempt at a fourth television network . It was also the highest- rated free-to-air network in the 18–49 demographic from 2004 to 2012 and 2020 to 2021, and was the most-watched American television network in total viewership during the 2007–08 season . Fox and its affiliated companies operate many entertainment channels in international markets, but these do not necessarily air
18060-420: The most-watched television network overall in the United States, attributed to the strengths of Super Bowl XLII and its NFL game coverages, Idol and House during that season. To date, Fox is the only non-Big Three network to top the overall Nielsen ratings since its inception in the 1950–51 season . In the late 2000s, Fox launched a few series that proved to be powerful hits in different respects. In 2007,
18232-628: The nation's fourth major network. Fox Television Stations would acquire New World outright on July 17, 1996, in a $ 2.48 billion stock purchase, making the latter's twelve Fox affiliates owned-and-operated stations of the network; the deal was completed on January 22, 1997. Later, in August 2000, Fox bought several stations owned by Chris-Craft Industries and its subsidiaries BHC Communications and United Television for $ 5.5 billion (most of these stations were UPN affiliates, although its Minneapolis station KMSP-TV would rejoin Fox in September 2002 as an owned-and-operated station). These purchases, for
18404-469: The network began production on the game shows Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? and Don't Forget the Lyrics! ; both shows ran for a total of three seasons each, making them the longest-running game shows in Fox's history. In 2008, the supernatural mystery series Fringe debuted to moderate ratings but earned critical acclaim during its first season on Tuesdays. Throughout its run, the series developed
18576-423: The network did not provide programming. Few Fox stations carried local newscasts during the network's early years, unlike the owned-and-operated stations and affiliates of its established rivals. Those that did were mostly based in larger markets (including some of the network's O&Os) and retained newscasts that had aired for decades. Even then, these news operations were limited to one newscast per day, following
18748-407: The network from CBS to help helm Fox's NFL coverage). The program was notable in being the first hour-long NFL pregame show on a broadcast television network; network pregame programs that existed beforehand, such as CBS' The NFL Today or NBC 's NFL Live! , aired as 30-minute broadcasts. Fox's show also adopted a looser, more irreverent approach than its predecessors in order to also appeal to
18920-694: The network planned to commission and acquire more series from "independent" studios not co-owned with the Big Three networks, explaining that the vertical integration of the major broadcast networks (including Fox itself) with associated studios had limited opportunities for outside studios, and cited several top programs that were distributed by third-parties, such as The Big Bang Theory and This Is Us (produced by Warner Bros. Television and 20th Television for CBS and NBC respectively). There were also plans for Fox to acquire new pitches directly from their writers, and offer them to outside producers. As part of
19092-604: The network rolled out its Saturday night schedule with the premiere of the supernatural drama series Werewolf , which began with a two-hour pilot movie event. Three other series were added to the Saturday lineup over the next three weeks: comedies The New Adventures of Beans Baxter , Karen's Song , and Down and Out in Beverly Hills (the latter being an adaptation of the film of the same name). Both Karen's Song and Down and Out in Beverly Hills were canceled by
19264-435: The network's National Football League and Major League Baseball coverage. He served as a television play-by-play announcer for the World Series over a 25-year span from 1996 to 2021 (with the exceptions of 1997 and 1999 , in which Bob Costas called those particular World Series for NBC ). In 2022, Buck moved to ESPN from Fox Sports . He is the lead play-by-play announcer for Monday Night Football . Buck
19436-399: The network's first successful American Idol lead-out since House , as well as the first American television program to consistently increase its episode-to-episode viewership during its first five weeks since the 1992 feat set by ABC's Roseanne . Empire ended its inaugural season as the first U.S. television show ever to increase its episodic viewership on a consistent basis throughout
19608-569: The network's longest-running drama, airing for ten seasons) after only a half-season of success on Sunday nights. The show performed well in its new Thursday slot, spending four seasons there and helping to launch Martin , another Fox comedy that became a hit when it debuted in August 1992. The Simpsons returned to Sunday nights in the fall of 1994, and has remained there ever since. The sketch comedy series In Living Color , which debuted in April 1990, created many memorable characters and launched
19780-418: The network's president and chief operating officer until his resignation in January 1993, stated would allow viewers to "sample FBC programming without missing 60 Minutes , Murder, She Wrote , or the 8 o'clock movies". Fox added one new show per week over the next several weeks, with the drama 21 Jump Street and comedies Mr. President and Duet completing its Sunday schedule. On July 11, 1987,
19952-449: The network's prime time lineup. On September 6, 1990, Fox reached an agreement with TCI (the nation's largest cable company at the time) in which TCI systems in markets that were not served by an over-the-air Fox affiliate at the time would become charter affiliates of a cable-only national feed of the network known as Foxnet . The cable-only network launched on June 6, 1991, bringing Fox programming to smaller markets that did not carry
20124-428: The network's weaker program offerings were hampering viewership of their stronger syndicated slate. At the start of the 1989–90 television season , Fox added a third night of programming, on Mondays. The season heralded the start of a turnaround for Fox. It saw the debut of a midseason replacement series, The Simpsons , an animated series that originated as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show . Ranked at
20296-672: The network's younger-skewing audiences. Fox NFL Sunday was also the first network pregame program to originate from Los Angeles , whereas the CBS and NBC pregame shows were produced in New York City (CBS continues to broadcast its pregame from New York, while NBC uses facilities in Stamford, Connecticut ). During Jimmy Johnson's initial season on Fox NFL Sunday , he would often join the show via satellite from his home in Florida . There
20468-541: The newly created Fox Television Group, with 20th Century Fox Television co-chairpersons Dana Walden and Gary Newman appointed to head the division. The 2014–15 season saw the series finale of Glee and debut of hits in the freshmen dramas Gotham (based on the Batman mythos) and the Lee Daniels -produced Empire . Ratings for Empire , in particular, increased week-to-week throughout its first season, becoming
20640-489: The official launch of FBC on April 5, 1987, under original Fox Entertainment President Garth Ancier, the network underwent a re-branding to the much shorter "Fox". According to an interview Ancier gave at that time, it was ad man Jay Chiat who suggested to network executives that, rather than create a brand from scratch, the network ought to use the "Fox" heritage of the previous 80 years and the "searchlight" iconography to link Fox Broadcasting to 20th Century Fox. Until late in
20812-502: The period as it centered on a dysfunctional lower-middle-class family, saw viewer interest substantially increase beginning in its third season after Michigan homemaker Terry Rakolta began a boycott to force Fox to cancel the series after objecting to risqué humor and sexual content featured in a 1989 episode . Married... ' s newfound success led it to become the network's longest-running live-action sitcom, airing for 11 seasons. Fox survived where DuMont and other attempts to start
20984-489: The pre-race show is telecast from the site of that week's race. Menefee hosted the halftime and postgame segments on location with the Fox NFL Sunday crew. Chris Rose served as the update host during game breaks. As a result of Buck going on assignment for Fox's MLB postseason coverage , Menefee substituted for Buck as the full-time host from Hollywood. During Weeks 6 through 8, while the show broadcast from Hollywood, Jillian Reynolds (née Barberie) returned as weather anchor for
21156-739: The pregame show again originated from Hollywood for both games. Stockton called the Saturday, January 13 game between the Philadelphia Eagles at the New Orleans Saints and Buck called the Sunday, January 14 game between the Seattle Seahawks at the Chicago Bears . For the 2006 NFC Championship Game between the New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears on January 21, 2007, Joe Buck hosted the pregame show with
21328-416: The pregame show. While the crew did the pregame, halftime and post-game shows, Charissa Thompson (host of Fox NFL Kickoff ) served as the studio host and anchored the in-game highlights. Riggle left the program after the 2019 season and wasn't replaced, with the role of prognosticator dropped from the program starting with the 2020 season. During the 2020 season due to COVID-19 concerns, Jimmy Johnson
21500-624: The present-day Fox Television Center. In October 1985, 20th Century Fox announced its intentions to form a fourth television network that would compete with ABC, CBS, and NBC. The plans were to use the combination of the Fox studios and the former Metromedia stations to both produce and distribute programming. Organizational plans for the network were held off until the Metromedia acquisitions cleared regulatory hurdles. Then, in December 1985, Rupert Murdoch agreed to pay $ 325 million to acquire
21672-433: The program after the 2005 season , in order to return to CBS to host its rival pregame show The NFL Today . On-location broadcast sites 2005 was the last season in which Fox (along with CBS) aired Saturday afternoon NFL games towards the end of the regular season in December. On these occasions, Fox would precede its coverage with a studio pregame show titled Fox NFL Saturday , which had no change in format outside of
21844-524: The program during the 2005–06 NFL season, but was not used regularly until the following season . The character was designed by Legacy Effects . Cleatus mainly appears during the opening sequence of the program, as well as during end-of-break sponsorship tags within the program and during game telecasts, certain identifications for Fox Sports used to close sports broadcasts and as a cue to Fox stations to air local advertisements during commercial breaks, and brief promotions for movies and television series. In
22016-455: The program has won four Emmy Awards . For sponsorship purposes, the show's full name is Fox NFL Sunday Presented by GMC Fox NFL Sunday debuted on September 4, 1994 , when Fox inaugurated its NFL game broadcasts through the network's recently acquired broadcast rights to the National Football Conference (NFC); it was originally hosted by James Brown , Terry Bradshaw , Howie Long and Jimmy Johnson (both Brown and Bradshaw had joined
22188-536: The program then began to be hosted by a succession of guest hosts. After that point, some stations that affiliated with FBC in the weeks before the April 1987 launch of its prime time lineup (such as WCGV-TV in Milwaukee and WDRB -TV in Louisville ) signed affiliation agreements with the network on the condition that they would not have to carry The Late Show due to the program's weak ratings. Shortly before
22360-426: The program with Abebe Adusmussui, an actual New York City taxi driver. The pilot was not picked up as a series, however. Buck has also appeared in various national television commercials for such clients as Holiday Inn and Budweiser beer. One of the more memorable spots for the latter had Buck goaded into using the catchphrase , "Slamma-lamma-ding-dong!" A 2008 commercial for National Car Rental had him using
22532-500: The programming schedule that began with the network's April 1987 prime time launch was replicated by The WB and UPN when those networks debuted in January 1995), making it the fifth broadcast network (behind the Dumont network) to air programming on a nightly basis. September 1993 saw the heavy promotion and debut of a short-lived western series that incorporated science-fiction elements, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. However, it
22704-535: The regular Fox NFL Sunday crew did the pregame show, Chris Rose served as the studio host and anchored the in-game highlights, as John Lynch and Trent Green served as studio analysts for the halftime and post-game reports during the broadcast. On January 24, 2010, Fox NFL Sunday broadcast on-location from New Orleans for the 2009 NFC Championship Game. On January 23, 2011, Fox NFL Sunday also broadcast an on-location edition at Soldier Field in Chicago for
22876-570: The remaining equity in TCF Holdings from his original partner, Marvin Davis . The purchase of the Metromedia stations was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in March 1986; the call letters of the New York City and Dallas outlets were subsequently changed respectively to WNYW and KDAF . These first six stations, then broadcasting to a combined reach of 22% of the nation's households, became known as
23048-691: The rivalry, including Aaron Boone 's walk off home run in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS , saying "The Boston Red Sox...were five outs away in the eighth inning, leading by three, as Boone hits it to deep left. That might send the Yankees to the World Series. Boone the hero of Game 7!" Soon after arriving at Fox, Buck became the play-by-play man on Fox's #4 NFL broadcast team, with Tim Green as his color commentator. After three years, he stopped doing NFL games to concentrate on his baseball duties full-time. During
23220-630: The same programming as the U.S. network. Most viewers in Canada have access to at least one U.S.-based Fox affiliate, either over the air or through a pay television provider, although Fox's National Football League broadcasts and most of its prime time programming are subject to simultaneous substitution regulations for pay television providers imposed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to protect rights held by domestically based networks. Fox
23392-544: The show's cancellation to Broadcasting & Cable . On March 16, 2022, ESPN announced that it had signed Buck and Aikman to a multi-year deal with the network, which saw them become the new lead broadcast team of Monday Night Football beginning in the 2022 NFL season , and also work on projects for ESPN+ . The move ended their 20-season tenure as Fox's lead NFL broadcast team. As compensation for Buck leaving Fox Sports with one year left on his contract, ESPN sublicensed one of its Big Ten college football games for
23564-436: The show, the opening introduction would typically feature a comedic skit involving several or all of the hosts. On-location broadcast sites In 1998 , on the heels of NBC losing the broadcast rights to the NFL's American Football Conference (AFC) to CBS , Cris Collinsworth joined Fox NFL Sunday as an analyst – subsequently replacing Ronnie Lott. During this period, promotional claymation spots and teases became
23736-438: The side benefit of increasing local news programming on the new Fox affiliates, mirroring the programming format adopted by WSVN upon that station's switch to the network (as well as expanding the number of news-producing stations in Fox's portfolio beyond mainly charter stations in certain large and mid-sized markets). With significant market share for the first time ever and the rights to the NFL, Fox firmly established itself as
23908-488: The signal quality was marginal at best compared to the signals of VHF stations (see also: UHF television broadcasting § UHF vs VHF ) . By the time Fox launched, cable allowed UHF stations to generally be on an equal footing with VHF stations. Although Fox was growing rapidly as a network and had established itself as a presence, it was still not considered a major competitor to the established "Big Three" broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC. From its launch, Fox had
24080-566: The spin-off of certain businesses. The sale did not include the Fox Broadcasting Company and television stations or the Fox Sports, Fox News, and Fox Business cable channels, which were to be maintained under a company tentatively referred to as " New Fox ". Because Disney already owns the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the acquisition of the Fox network by Disney would have been illegal under
24252-500: The start of the 1987–88 television season , the network's first fall launch, and were replaced by the sitcoms Second Chance and Women in Prison . In regard to its late night lineup, Fox had already decided to cancel The Late Show , and had a replacement series in development, The Wilton North Report , when the former series began a ratings resurgence under its final guest host, comedian Arsenio Hall . Wilton North lasted just
24424-483: The strength of the reality singing competition series American Idol . Regarded as the single most dominant program on 21st-century U.S. television, as well as the first Fox show to lead the Nielsen seasonal ratings, American Idol had peak audiences of up to 38 million viewers during the 2003 season finale and double-season average audiences of around 31 million viewers in 2006 and 2007 . Subsequently, it leapfrogged over Fox's Big Three competition to become
24596-476: The strengths of American Idol , 24 , House , and The O.C . In September 2006, as a result of the increasing number of over-the-air Fox affiliates and the increased availability of digital subchannels carrying Fox in certain markets, Foxnet was discontinued. Then, a sweeping milestone came by the conclusion of the 2007–08 season on May 21, 2008, shortly after the widely acclaimed seventh-season finale of American Idol , when Fox outranked longtime leader CBS as
24768-430: The tension-filled banter between Buck and guest Artie Lange , a comedian from The Howard Stern Show , who made several jokes at Buck's expense. Two more episodes aired in 2009. In March 2010, Buck told a St. Louis radio station that HBO might be planning to cancel Joe Buck Live , adding that he "won't miss" the program and that it involved "a lot more effort and hassle than I ever expected". HBO subsequently confirmed
24940-457: The transition, Fox aimed to gradually reduce the amount of scripted programming development coming from 20th Television, although stalwarts such as The Simpsons would remain with the network. Joe Buck Joseph Francis Buck (born April 25, 1969) is an American sportscaster for ESPN. The son of sportscaster Jack Buck , he worked for Fox Sports from its 1994 inception through 2022, including roles as lead play-by-play announcer for
25112-562: The two most-watched broadcast networks in the U.S. during the 2000s, have tended to equal one another in demographic ratings among general viewership, with both networks winning certain demographics by narrow margins; however, while Fox has the youngest-skewing viewer base, CBS is consistently regarded to have the oldest audience demographics among the major broadcast networks. Fox hit a milestone in February 2005 by scoring its first sweeps victory in total viewership and demographic ratings, boosted largely by its broadcast of Super Bowl XXXIX and
25284-614: The wall," and then he calls, "TIE GAME!" as the ball flies over Torii Hunter , who flipped over the outfield wall. Later with Fox, Buck called a limited selection of regular-season games each year (typically featuring big-market teams such as the Yankees , Red Sox , Dodgers , Cardinals in which he called games for, and/or Cubs ), as well as the All-Star Game , one of the League Championship Series , and
25456-521: The weather anchor/co-host of Los Angeles Fox owned-and-operated station KTTV 's Good Day L.A. ) was added to the program to provide weather forecasts for each week's game sites. On-location broadcast sites Cris Collinsworth left the program in 2002, when he was promoted to Fox's newly formed "A Team" of NFL game announcers, alongside Joe Buck and Troy Aikman (replacing Pat Summerall and John Madden ). Fox produced several promos featuring Buck, Collinsworth and Aikman dressed as characters from
25628-407: The week. In 2007, Buck stepped down as host to focus on his play-by-play duties, and Fox NFL Sunday reverted to primarily being broadcast from Fox Sports' studios in Los Angeles. On October 14, 2012, Buck called a doubleheader, first with the New York Giants - San Francisco 49ers game at Candlestick Park at 1:25 PM PDT, then traveled via trolley for the seven-mile journey up the west shore of
25800-611: The winner "at the start of a back nine". Before a 2020 NFL broadcast between the Packers and Buccaneers in Tampa , Buck and his partner Troy Aikman were caught on a hot mic questioning the necessity of a military flyover when only 15,000 fans were allowed in Raymond James Stadium for the game. "That's your hard-earned money and your tax dollars at work," Buck commented. An Armed Forces spokesperson later said there
25972-425: Was a late-night talk show , The Late Show , which was hosted by comedian Joan Rivers . After a strong start, The Late Show quickly eroded in the ratings; it was never able to overtake NBC stalwart The Tonight Show . By early 1987, Rivers (and her then-husband Edgar Rosenberg , the show's original executive producer) quit The Late Show after disagreements with the network over the show's creative direction,
26144-488: Was a response to Packers fans, who traditionally moon the Vikings players aboard the team bus, which Buck did not know about, and therefore did not mention. Buck's comment also indicated that he incorrectly believed that Moss had mooned the fans. It prompted Red McCombs , then the owner of the Minnesota Vikings , to request that Buck be removed from covering their upcoming playoff game, saying that Buck's comments "suggested
26316-566: Was absent, presumably having gone on maternity leave , as she was pregnant with her first child at the time. During Wild Card weekend, Menefee substituted for Buck as host of the Hollywood-originated pregame show broadcast. Meanwhile, Buck called the January 7, 2007 game between the New York Giants at the Philadelphia Eagles . During the Divisional Playoffs, Menefee once again substituted for Joe Buck as host, as
26488-436: Was acknowledged to have been the one who created the network, with the New York Times noting in October 1986 that Diller's "current obsession is creating a television network to compete each evening with NBC, CBS and ABC." The Fox Broadcasting Company, or "FBC" as it was known back then, officially debuted with a soft launch at 11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time on Thursday, October 9, 1986. Its inaugural program
26660-540: Was also featured, as a gesture to Fox's then recent acquisition of broadcast rights to the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). This segment was dropped following the 2007 season. On June 24, 2008, it was announced that former New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan would join the show as an analyst. On November 8, 2009, a special two-hour edition of the program was broadcast on-location from Afghanistan , featuring an audience of U.S. soldiers. While
26832-450: Was announced that former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton would be joining as an analyst on days when Jimmy Johnson would be out. "Cleatus the Robot" is an animated robot character that serves as the official mascot for Fox NFL Sunday, and the entirety of Fox Sports. It was named through a viewer contest held in the winter of 2007, in which fans were asked to submit entries to select the robot's name. Cleatus made his first appearance on
27004-478: Was boosted by the transfer of the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants from NBC, as well as shows such as Grease: Live , Empire and the return of The X-Files after its most recent season ending in 2002. Grease: Live became the first live American television musical special of the 21st century to be broadcast in front of a live studio audience (as well as the first ever live musical special aired by
27176-401: Was born in St. Petersburg, Florida (where the St. Louis Cardinals , for whom his father broadcast, then conducted their spring training ) and raised in the St. Louis area, where he attended St. Louis Country Day School . He began his broadcasting career in 1989 while he was an undergraduate at Indiana University Bloomington . Buck called play-by-play for the then- Louisville Redbirds ,
27348-618: Was broadcast from Ford Island at Pearl Harbor , Hawaii . The location was chosen to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor , with the USS Missouri being featured in the backdrop of the broadcast. On September 11, 2016, Fox NFL Sunday was broadcast on location in Houston (the host city of Super Bowl LI ) for the start of the 2016 NFL season . This also marked Curt Menefee's tenth season as full-time host of
27520-491: Was broadcast on CBS, marking the start of Fox's rivalry with the "Big Three" networks while popularizing the counterprogramming strategy against the Super Bowl telecast. The early and mid-1990s saw the debuts of several soap opera-style prime time dramas aimed at younger audiences that became quick hits, which, in addition to Beverly Hills, 90210 , included its adult-focused spin-off Melrose Place (which initially had
27692-593: Was doing his job. He would return to Twitter four months later to engage in friendly banter with a Kansas City Royals fan who started a petition to have him removed from the Fox broadcast team for the Royals' appearance in the 2015 ALCS . Also in June 2015, Buck and co-announcer Greg Norman were criticized for their "mistake-filled, error-prone mess" in covering the 2015 U.S. Open in golf. In particular, they were questioned for prematurely anointing Dustin Johnson as
27864-462: Was featured heavily in 2009, he only made cameo appearances in 2010 before being phased out completely the following year. Starting in 2014, Frank Krimel is the driver of Fox Sports 1 Cleatus competing in Monster Jam . Cleatus was included in an episode of The Simpsons , " The Spy Who Learned Me ", and in sketches on Late Night with Conan O'Brien . During the 2019 WWE draft , Cleatus
28036-495: Was much speculation that Johnson would return to coaching during the first year of the program's run. Prior to the end of the year, Johnson made an "announcement", saying he was happy with his new career in broadcasting. But in 1996 , he left the program to become head coach of the Miami Dolphins ; Ronnie Lott was brought in to succeed him, and stayed with the program for two seasons. During Jimmy Johnson's initial run on
28208-408: Was named Fox's lead play-by-play voice for Major League Baseball , teaming with Tim McCarver , who had previously worked with his father on CBS. That year, he became the youngest man to do a national broadcast (for all nine innings and games, as a network employee as opposed to simply being a representative of one of the participating teams) for a World Series , surpassing Sean McDonough , who called
28380-633: Was named Fox's new president of alternative entertainment and specials Rob Wade; he had previously worked as a showrunner for Dancing with the Stars , as head of entertainment for BBC Worldwide , and as executive producer of America's Got Talent and The X Factor . On July 27, 2018, in a deal first announced December 2017, and completed March 20, 2019, 21st Century Fox shareholders agreed to sell most of its key assets (including 20th Century Fox , 20th Century Fox Television , and FX Networks ) to The Walt Disney Company for $ 71.3 billion, following
28552-480: Was no longer interested in calling baseball, since "I feel like I've done all I could do there. If someday I wanna go back and call a few games—maybe. But I don't have that itch." In the late 1990s, Buck hosted a weekly sports news show, Goin' Deep , for Fox Sports Net cable. He also called horse racing and professional bass fishing events early in his Fox career, as well as the network's first Cotton Bowl Classic telecast in 1999 . Since 2001, Buck has hosted
28724-509: Was not in the studio, working remotely from Florida as a precaution. Then for the games on November 22, the whole team was momentarily replaced due to greater COVID-19 restrictions within the state of California, with Chris Myers taking over the hosting duties and former players Reggie Bush and Charles Woodson taking over the analyst's roles. Once the Thanksgiving games were underway the regular crew came back minus Bradshaw. In May 2022, it
28896-674: Was part of the original transaction but was spun off to the Hearst Broadcasting subsidiary of the Hearst Communications in a separate, concurrent deal as part of a right of first refusal related to that station's 1982 sale to Metromedia. (Two years later, News Corporation acquired WXNE-TV in that market from the Christian Broadcasting Network and changed its call letters to WFXT .) Radio personality Clarke Ingram suggested that
29068-473: Was scheduled to call a Cardinals- Cubs baseball game on Bally Sports Midwest alongside his close friend Chip Caray . It would have marked the first time Buck had called a baseball game since the 2021 World Series . However, the game was rained out. Buck is generally regarded as "one of the most heavily criticized" announcers in sports, with various fans complaining that he is biased on his calls towards or against particular teams. Buck attributes this to
29240-410: Was subsequently picked up by Lifetime (before being cancelled for good in 2013); Cops , in turn, would move its first-run episodes to Spike in 2013 after 23 seasons (ending its original run on Fox as the network's longest-running prime time program) and had been cancelled in 2020, leaving sports and repeats of reality and drama series as the only programs airing on Fox on Saturday evenings. During
29412-478: Was the same phrase with which Jack Buck had famously called Kirby Puckett 's home run off Braves pitcher Charlie Leibrandt , which ended Game 6 of the 1991 World Series . Since then, Joe has continued to use this phrase at appropriate times, including Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS , in which the Boston Red Sox famously rallied off New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera in the 9th inning to avoid elimination. When David Ortiz 's walk-off home run finally won it for
29584-483: Was the supernatural investigative drama that debuted immediately following it on Friday nights, The X-Files , that would find long-lasting success, and would become Fox's first series to crack Nielsen's year-end Top 20 most-watched network programs. After several other failed attempts at late night programming following the cancellation of The Late Show (most notably, the quick failure of The Chevy Chase Show in 1993), Fox finally found success in that time period with
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