Tag: Fox

Panthers great Cam Newton starring in ‘toughest’ celebrity reality show

Former Panthers QB Cam Newton will be one of 16 celebrities starring in the latest season of FOX’s ‘Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.’

Carolina Panthers legend Cam Newton has gone to battle on the gridiron plenty of times. But has that prepared him for something a little bit closer to actual warfare?

Newton has been announced as one of 16 celebrities who will star in the upcoming season of FOX’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. The reality series will see its contestants undergo military training to face the “harshest, most grueling challenges from the playbook of the actual Special Forces selection process,” according to FOX.

This season is set from Wales, England—where celebrities will train against the “harsh reality” of ocean warfare.

Here’s the trailer, which was released on Friday:

Newton is joined by the following celebrities:

  • Nathan Adrian (Olympic swimmer)
  • Stephen Baldwin (actor)
  • Alana Blanchard (pro surfer)
  • Landon Donovan (former pro soccer player)
  • Ali Fedotowsky Manno (reality TV star)
  • Carey Hart (motocross champion)
  • Brody Jenner (reality TV star)
  • Marion Jones (Olympic track and field athlete)
  • Kayla Nicole (model/influencer)
  • Kyla Pratt (actress)
  • Denise Richards (actress)
  • Christy Carlson Romano (actress)
  • Trista Sutter (reality TV star)
  • Golden Tate (former NFL wide receiver)
  • Jordyn Wieber (Olympic gymnast)

The season premiere will air on Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 8 p.m. ET.

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Will the Chargers-Titans matchup be on in your area?

Find out if you will get the matchup between the Los Angeles Chargers and Tennessee Titans on national television.

The Los Angeles Chargers (5-3) are set to get Week 10 underway against the Tennessee Titans (2-6).

Those in the green area on the TV map will get the game on FOX, courtesy of 506 Sports.

If you’re in the red area, you will get the matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

If you’re in the blue area, you will get the matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints.

If you’re in the yellow area, you will see the Minnesota Vikings play the Jacksonville Jaguars.

If you’re in the orange area, you will get the New England Patriots and Chicago Bears.

Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma will have the call.

Los Angeles is currently a 7.5-point favorite. Sunday’s matchup will begin at 1:05 p.m. PT.

NFL opted against disciplining Tom Brady after he broke his ownership restrictions during Fox Week 9 broadcast

Tom Brady isn’t allowed to criticize officials. He did it anyway.

Tom Brady put the NFL in a position to make a disciplinary decision on Sunday, and the league is reportedly opting to let the seven-time Super Bowl champ off with a warning instead.

As part of his minority ownership stake in the Las Vegas Raiders, the league placed several restrictions on Brady for his job as Fox’s lead NFL analyst. Brady is banned from visiting non-Raiders facilities and attending production meetings. He’s also not allowed to criticize teams or NFL officials on the air.

During Sunday’s Week 9 game between the Lions and Packers, Brady put those rules to the test when he disagreed with the call to eject Lions defensive back Brian Branch.

According to Front Office Sports, the league will not be fining Brady:

That would appear to violate the league’s ban on Brady criticizing teams or referees. But the NFL had “no issue” with his comments, according to the source. Brady won’t be fined.

Brady’s framing of “I don’t love that call at all” might have been key there. He made it about his opinion rather than saying an official was wrong. But in an ideal booth, you wouldn’t have an announcer forced to navigate that tightrope. He should be allowed to criticize officials when a call is missed — that’s part of the job.

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Fox Big Noon Kickoff pregame show coming to Penn State-Ohio State game

Fox is bringing its traveling road show to Happy Valley for the big matchup between Penn State and Ohio State this week.

Penn State’s next game is a big one. It is arguably the game of the year for the Nittany Lions and the biggest litmus test for where this team stands on the national stage. And they will get the national spotlight in a big way in Week 10 when Penn State hosts Ohio State.

Penn State’s contest with Ohio State was previously locked in for a noon eastern kickoff on Fox, so it was only a matter of time before the inevitable follow-up news was confirmed. Fox finalized the details by announcing its traveling road show, the Big Noon Kickoff pregame show, will be broadcasting live from State College ahead of next week’s mega contest with Penn State and Ohio State.

The Fox pregame show doesn’t always air from the site of the network’s headliner early kickoff game, although it does far more often than not. This was widely expected to continue for next week’s game in Happy Valley.

And the Fox pregame show will not be the only one in town. ESPN has also announced its pregame show, College GameDay is making its way from Bloomington, Indiana this past weekend to State College this week. This will be the 10th time College GameDay has come to Happy Valley in the show’s history.

It should be a big stage for Penn State as they look to get past an Ohio State team that has caused the Nittany Lions so many frustrations over the years. Penn State is a home underdog according to the early line this week.

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Announcers set for Chargers vs. Saints Week 8 game

Find out who will be calling the Week 8 game between the Chargers and Saints.

The Chargers look to get back over .500 when they meet the Saints on Sunday, Oct. 27, at 1:05 p.m. PT.

The Week 8 game will be televised on Fox. Chris Myers and Mark Sanchez will have the call.

Los Angeles is coming off a 17-15 loss to the Cardinals. Meanwhile, New Orleans is on a five-game losing streak after starting the season 2-0.

The Chargers’ last win over the Saints came back in 2004.

TV and kickoff time for Penn State’s home game vs. Ohio State is confirmed

Penn State’s upcoming home game with Ohio State will be one to watch, and here is when and how to watch that game.

One of the biggest games of the year on Penn State’s 2024 schedule will not be getting the primetime treatment. It won’t even be placed in the mid-afternoon timeslot. Instead, it will be designated for Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff game.

The Big Ten unveiled the start times and TV assignments for the Week 10 conference schedule, which will be highlighted by Penn State’s home game against Ohio State. Fox will air the game at 12 p.m. ET as the headliner on Fox’s schedule on Nov. 2.

It has not been announced at this time, but it is likely Fox will bring its pregame show to Happy Valley as well. The game could also attract ESPN’s College GameDay as it could be the highest-profile game on the schedule that weekend. Georgia and Florida in Jacksonville is always an option, but this could be the best opportunity for GameDay to make the trip back to State College this season.

The Ohio State game will be the fourth game to start at noon for the Nittany Lions this season, and it will be the third Big Noon Kickoff game airing on Fox. Penn State opened the season in Fox’s early afternoon timeslot at West Virginia in Week 1 and hosted UCLA for the featured early afternoon contest in Week 6. Penn State also hosted Bowling Green for a noon kickoff in Week 2, but that game aired on Big Ten Network.

Penn State will be coming off a primetime game on NBC this week at Wisconsin. It was widely expected Fox would be making a serious play for the Penn State-Ohio State matchup for the Big Noon Kickoff since the season started. The Penn State-Ohio State game has tended to be one of the more attractive games on the Big Ten TV schedule, and this year’s meeting could potentially be a top-five matchup. Penn State is 6-0 and is hoping to come home from Wisconsin this week with a clean 7-0 record and a top-three ranking. Ohio State has lost just one game this season, two weeks ago in a close game at Oregon, who is now the no. 1 team in the national rankings. Ohio State is no. 4 in both major polls this week, one spot behind the Nittany Lions.

If the Nittany Lions and Buckeyes each manage to win their respective games this week (Ohio State hosts Nebraska), then next week’s game would be the first meeting in the series with both teams ranked in the top five since 1996. To date, that is the only time the two schools have faced each other when ranked in the top five.

But first things first. Penn State has to find a way to beat a Wisconsin team that has pummeled each of their past three opponents and held their opponents to seven points or fewer in each of the last three games.

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Fox’s weird hologram Tom Brady added nothing useful to its broadcast just like the real Tom Brady

Fox’s Tom Brady hologram was just as useless and boring as the real one.

The more you listen to Tom Brady analyze Fox’s No. 1 NFL game live every week, the more you wonder why he’s getting paid nearly $400 million over 10 years to offer milquetoast critiques that add nothing noteworthy to the broadcast. And when considering Brady’s limitations as an announcer now that he’s a co-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, you really start to question how thoughtless giant corporations can be when handing out generational wealth by the tenfold.

But gosh dang it, Fox made Brady the mediocre face of their pro football coverage, and they’re clearly going to try to get their money’s worth at all possible costs. Even if their brazen uses for his broadcast “talents” are silly, weird, useless, and seemingly shoe-horned into their coverage without a second thought.

That’s exactly what I thought of when I saw Fox’s NFL studio show debut a hologram Brady (yes, really) “live” right next to Terry Bradshaw, Jimmy Johnson, and the rest of the gang.

(Jeff Goldblum in a movie about prehistoric animals voice.)

Seriously, did no one stop to think about whether they should do this when they realized they could?

Look, again, I get it. Fox paid a retired Brady nearly as much money as an active Patrick Mahomes to simply talk about football. The network is probably and understandably looking for returns on its investment everywhere. But this insistence on making the NFL’s preeminent boring Wonder Bread personality such a fixture will inevitably lead to unremarkable little episodes like this.

Fox is trying to make Brady — the real one and the fuzzy virtual one — much more interesting than he really is, and we all have to suffer for it as a result.

Tom Brady’s NFL restrictions as a Raiders co-owner make it impossible for him to be a successful broadcaster

What is he even allowed to do?

When Fox hired Tom Brady to be its lead NFL analyst, the move made sense — even if it meant demoting a great talent in Greg Olsen. Brady is the best quarterback to ever play, and having recently retired, he’d theoretically bring enormous familiarity and expertise on today’s NFL.

That hasn’t exactly played out in the first few weeks of Brady’s broadcasting career, and it’s almost certainly about to get worse. He’s no longer allowed to be honest to his audience.

On Tuesday, the league’s owners officially approved a Brady-led group in the purchase of a 10 percent stake in the Las Vegas Raiders. That effectively made Brady a co-owner and someone with a financial incentive in seeing the Raiders succeed all while speaking to viewers as an impartial expert. The conflict is obvious.

But in an effort to keep Brady from using insider information or abusing this conflict of interest, the league placed restrictions on what Brady can do and say as a Fox broadcaster. And, uh, it’s a lot.

https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1846291995243041063

According to ESPN, Brady won’t be allowed in non-Raiders facilities (besides the stadiums he works to call games from). He can’t watch practices. He can’t attend broadcast production meetings in any capacity, which is a massive restriction on an announcer as those meetings are used to craft talking points and insight to carry a broadcast for three-plus hours.

He also can’t criticize game officials or other teams, which, again, is a wild limit to put on a broadcaster. He’d basically have to watch a potential game-changing missed call and either stay quiet or deflect blame away from the refs. That’s just a terrible disservice to viewers.

We’ll have to see how this all plays out on Sundays. But it can’t be good, particularly for a novice broadcaster like Brady. We may be at the point where we wonder if Brady is bad or just contractually limited to be bad at a job that is paying him $375 million over a decade.

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Fox’s Shohei Ohtani graphic about how many batters away he is has become a hilarious meme

Shohei Ohtani is only a few batters away.

Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani is a once-in-a-lifetime talent and he is impossible to miss whenever he is playing baseball.

Part of that is because of his larger-than-life presence at the plate but another reason is because FOX’s broadcast of the MLB postseason is currently doing everything in its power to make sure you know he is there.

Of course, whenever he comes up to the plate, it has the potential to become an unforgettable moment. But during the NLDS between the Dodgers and the Padres, the broadcast wanted to make sure when fans knew how long until he stepped up to the plate again.

Baseball finally has a marketable star on its hands and their broadcasting partners are going to remind you of that at every opportunity, but fans are already turning it into a meme during his first playoff appearance:

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Legendary QB who nearly joined 49ers will broadcast their Week 5 game

The seven-time Super Bowl champ will be on the call for the 49ers Week 5 contest against the Cardinals.

Tom Brady will be making a trip back home for Week 5 of the NFL schedule.

The legendary quarterback and Bay Area native will be in the booth on Sunday in Santa Clara for the San Francisco 49ers’ week five contest against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi’s Stadium. Week 5 will mark Brady’s first appearance on a 49ers game as a broadcasting analyst alongside Kevin Burkhardt with Fox.

Via @LombardiHimself on Twitter:

Brady, who won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers reportedly nearly joined his hometown team of the 49ers in 2019. However, Brady chose to sign with the Buccaneers and went on to win Super Bowl LV.

Brady last came to Santa Clara in 2022 as the Bucs quarterback, losing 35-7 to Brock Purdy in his first start under center for the 49ers.

Brady grew up about 45 minutes from Santa Clara in San Mateo, playing high school football for Junipero Serra.

Sunday’s game is set for a 1:05 p.m. PT kickoff between the 49ers and Cardinals.

This post originally appeared on Niners Wire! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

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