↵A bit of Joe Buck news today, as USA Today reports that the veteran broadcaster has a new four-year contract with FOX, serving as the network’s lead baseball and football play-by-play man. While it seems like Buck has been around forever, it’s amazing to know that he’s only 40 years old, so this deal, that carries him through 2014, will undoubtedly not be his last. In fact, the Buck star may be rising even higher than ever before, at least at FOX.↵
Could Joe Buck Become FOX’s Jay Leno For Conan O’Brien?
↵
↵
↵
↵↵HBO recently announced that it was canceling Joe Buck Live, which was the premium channel’s follow-up to Costas Now. Unfortunately for HBO, save for Artie Lange’s antics, the show never gained much traction, stopping production after just three shows. The news that the show was officially cancelled seemed rather innocuous considering there hasn’t been a show in quite some time. In fact, if you go to the Joe Buck Live community forum, one of the questions on the site, posted on January 14th, was: ↵
↵↵⇥With football season in its home stretch and basketball and hockey well under way, which athletes and sports personalities would you like to see on Joe’s next show?↵↵To speak to the lack of interest in the show – at least from a “community building” standpoint online – there were just two replies to the question. The first came on January 25th: “Artie Lange.” The next came on March 24th, two months later, that read: “How about just a new episode? Is this show canceled or what? Obviously HBO isn’t rushing any new Joe Buck Live shows.”↵↵Alas, the show was cancelled. But a note in the USA Today story may give some indication as to why Buck and HBO have just now confirmed the show was done.↵
↵↵⇥Buck says he’s also talking to Fox Sports chief David Hill about developing a show similar to Joe Buck Live, which was cancelled Monday by HBO Sports after only three episodes. The proposed show could air on Fox or a cable network like FX.↵↵
↵Clearly, Buck's All-American appeal wasn't suited for the say-anything world of HBO. And while FX does allow for some liberties with the language, basic cable could be a better home for Buck's style of interviews. That said, would a Joe Buck talk format succeed on a "cutting edge" channel like FX? Actually, the possibility for Buck to have a show where he interviews FX characters is just fantastic. If you thought Artie Lange was unruly, imagine Buck doing a segment with Charlie from It's Always Sunny followed by a one-on-one with Sterling Archer.↵
↵↵Come on, this story is screaming network talk show all over the place. And with FOX reportedly in discussions with Conan O’Brien to do a late-night talker, where would that leave a project with Buck? Would FOX bother giving Buck a show that starts at midnight – he’s not exactly the midnight crowd’s type, is he? – or could he get something on the weekend like they’ve done with Wanda Sykes? ↵
↵↵Could Buck be a fall-back plan if a deal with O’Brien isn’t signed and the network still decides to proceed with a daily talker? At least we know, with local news filling that slot on FOX affiliates, Buck can’t pull a Leno and go on at 10 p.m. as a lead-in to Conan. At least we know that.↵
↵
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
See More:
