We're just two days away from the launch of Fox Sports 1, and four days away from the premiere episode of Crowd Goes Wild, a panel show hosted by Regis Philbin. But in this New York Times piece about Philbin's new venture, there was a nugget about Philbin that raised some eyebrows.
How long this new experience will last is, apparently, up in the air. In his dressing room at Chelsea Piers, Mr. Philbin was asked about the length of his “Crowd” contract. “Five months,” he said, as a Dean Martin song played in the background. “Twenty weeks. It ends after the Super Bowl.”
Only a 20 week run for Regis? His timeframe doesn't make much sense, as 20 weeks would just take him until the end of the calendar year as opposed to past the Super Bowl, a time period of four and a half months.
Fox Sports executive Michael Bloom refuted Regis' claim of a short-term contract.
A Fox Sports executive, Michael Bloom, contradicted Mr. Philbin’s assertion. “There’s no short-term contract,” he said.
The show will be a gamble for Fox. Philbin is heading a panel on Crowd Goes Wild that really lacks an established sports voice. Georgie Thompson, Michael Kosta, Trevor Pryce, Jason Gay, and Katie Nolan might all wind up catching fire and becoming media superstars, but none are there yet, despite Nolan's No Filter series on Youtube bringing some decent laughs.
If Philbin's contract really is a short-term one, Fox might be using him as a bridge of sorts, getting the casual viewer interested in the show because of his name and getting them to stay because of the other panelists. It'll take a lot of work to siphon off some of the audience from Around the Horn and PTI, but if the train starts rolling, it might be tough to stop.
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