| Fox NFL Kickoff | |
|---|---|
 Alternate horizontal version of program logo used since September 2015 | |
| Genre | NFLpre-game show |
| Presented by | Charissa Thompson Charles Woodson Julian Edelman Colin Cowherd Cooper Manning (for past hosts and analysts,see article) |
| Theme music composer | Scott Schreer |
| Opening theme | "NFL on Fox theme music" |
| Composer | Scott Schreer |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| Production | |
| Production locations | Fox Network Center (Fox Studio Lot Building 101), 10201 WPico Blvd,Century City,Los Angeles,California |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company | Fox Sports |
| Original release | |
| Network | FS1 (2013–2015) Fox (2015–present) |
| Release | September 8, 2013 (2013-09-08) – present |
| Related | |
| Fox NFL Sunday | |
Fox NFL Kickoff is an American sports television program that originally debuted onFS1 on September 8, 2013, and moved toFox on September 13, 2015,[1] and serves as the secondarypre-game show for the network'sNational Football League (NFL) game telecasts under theNFL on Fox brand.
The hour-long program – which airs Sunday mornings at 11:00 a.m.Eastern Time – focuses on news and analysis of the week's upcoming NFL games as well as interviews with NFL coaches and players, and live reports from sites for the network's game telecasts, serving as an extension of Fox's primary NFL pre-game show,Fox NFL Sunday, whose own analysts appear on certain segments seen on the program. An audio simulcast of the program airs on sister radio networkFox Sports Radio, which is distributed byPremiere Radio Networks.
On August 12, 2013, Fox Sports announced that it would launchFox NFL Kickoff as a supplementary pre-game show to the Fox broadcast network's NFL coverage on Sundays; the program premiered on September 8, 2013 – the inaugural Sunday of that year'sNFL season – on Fox Sports 1, the division's national sports network that launched three weeks earlier on August 17.[2]
For its first two seasons, the program was originally hosted byJoel Klatt; former NFL playersRandy Moss,Brian Urlacher andDonovan McNabb served as analysts, providing previews and prognostications for the day's game slate and reviewing any games held earlier that week. Urlacher left the program shortly after it began its second season on September 16, 2014, following his decision to resign from his analyst role at Fox Sports;[3] FormerChicago Bears andMiami Dolphins head coachDave Wannstedt became an analyst shortly beforehand at the start of the second season. McNabb was placed on an indefinite suspension by the sports division on July 12, 2015, following his arrest on aDUI complaint.[4][5] During years when Fox holds the broadcast rights to theSuper Bowl, the program is retitledFox Super Bowl Kickoff, running as a five-hour broadcast.
The program struggled in theratings throughout its run on FS1, averaging under 100,000 viewers during the2014 season, with its lowest viewership being recorded on the November 30 edition, which registered a paltry 28,000 viewers (far behind competing NFL pre-game shows,Sunday NFL Countdown onESPN andNFL GameDay Morning onNFL Network).[6]
On July 20, 2015, Fox Sports announced thatFox NFL Kickoff would move to the main Fox network, beginning in the2015 NFL season. Fox asked itsowned-and-operated stations andaffiliates to clear the 11:00 a.m.Eastern Time hour on Sundays to run the program (displacinginfomercials,religious programming or the network'spolitical discussion showFox News Sunday that were carried in that timeslot on most Fox stations, and local weekend morning newscasts on select stations located in thePacific andMountain Time Zones, where Fox's NFL coverage begins earlier). Executives with the sports division cited the preference to provide a stronger lead-in forFox NFL Sunday (despite its position as the highest-rated NFL pre-game show for its entire 21-year history to that point, with the show averaging 4.9 million viewers during the 2014 season, an increase of 2% from 2013) and by effect, result in higher initial ratings for the network’s early afternoon game telecasts. Fox executives stated that the show would continue to utilize talent separate from that used by the network's longer established pre-game program,Fox NFL Sunday, although personalities from that program would act as contributors.[1][6][7] In some cases it also allows the network full control of up to twelve hours of programming on gameday Sunday (including primetime for doubleheader days), if an affiliate leads inFox NFL Kickoff with the network'sSunday morning talk show,Fox News Sunday.
On August 12, the division announced that former ESPN personalityColin Cowherd would join Fox Sports; in addition to hisradio show moving to Fox Sports Radio and Fox Sports 1, Cowherd serves as a studio analyst forFox NFL Kickoff.[8][9] On September 11, 2015,Charissa Thompson (who also acts as a moderator and segment host of Fox Sports 1's sports news programFox Sports Live, and was an NFL sideline reporter for Fox in2008 and 2014) was named as the new host of the program, replacing Klatt; the appointment reunited Thompson with Cowherd, with whom she previously co-hostedESPN2'sSportsNation from 2012 to 2013. Former NFL playerChamp Bailey was added as an analyst, withCooper Manning added as a special contributor, conducting interviews and contributing to other special segments.[10][11]
In part because of the relative lateness of the announcement, Fox stations in markets totaling about 10% of the U.S. (such asWFLD inChicago,KTVU inSan Francisco,KCPQ inSeattle,WVUE-DT inNew Orleans, andWBFF inBaltimore) have declined to airFox NFL Kickoff since due to existing programming commitments, specifically those to locally produced pre-game shows for local NFL franchises (either "official" team-produced or unofficial productions) that have led intoFox NFL Sunday prior to the move ofKickoff to Fox or to fulfilleducational and informational programming requirements, or moved it to a secondary subchannel, asWITI inMilwaukee did, moving it to theirAntenna TV subchannel. Similar to such agreements involving the network'sformer children'sprogramming blocks, Fox contracted the local rights to the program to air on an affiliate ofThe CW orMyNetworkTV – typically one co-owned or co-operated with the local Fox station – in areas where a Fox owned-and-operated station or affiliate chose not to carry it.[12] WITI and KCPQ began to carry it in the 2020 season on their main channels after coming under direct Fox ownership.
However, in some markets,Fox NFL Kickoff does not air at all. This includes a number of fairly large markets such asSalt Lake City and New Orleans (the latter devoting its morning to Saints pre-game programming).
