His abrupt ouster as head of programming for Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2 and FoxSports.com has created more questions than answers, not least for his colleagues at FS1.
Here are five burning questions about Horowitz’s departure.
1. What happens to Katie Nolan?
Pro tip: She’s leaving Fox for ESPN as soon as her contract expires in 2018.
Sporting News reported exclusively that ESPN’s heaviest hitters — John Skipper, Connor Schell and “Pardon the Interruption” producer Erik Rydholm — were personally courting the “Garbage Time” host to jump to ESPN. Horowitz’s departure will probably seal the deal. The two were personal friends, and Horowitz’s No. 2, Charlie Dixon, told Sporting News the network was planning to give viewers five times as much as Nolan before his boss’ firing.
MORE: Katie Nolan Q&A with Sporting News
Nolan has been effectively playing out her contract with Fox, tweeting occasionally and saying little publicly about her future. Her “Garbage Time” show is on hiatus. There’s little work being done on a new show for her as FS1 puts most of its energy into launching its first national morning program “First Things First” with Cris Carter and Nick Wright on Sept. 5.
The Boston native has made no secret of her desire to stay on the East Coast rather than relocate to Los Angeles. Once Nolan is contractually free to sign with ESPN, she won’t get her own show at first, said sources. Instead, look for her to be a roving “personality,” injecting opinion and humor into “SportsCenter,” Mike Greenberg’s new solo show and other programs.
Luring Nolan away from Fox would be sweet revenge for ESPN after it lost Skip Bayless and Colin Cowherd, two TV talents it tried to keep, to Horowitz and FS1.
Then again, nothing is guaranteed with Nolan. One source told me she might ultimately move into entertainment programming. “She’d love to work for Comedy Central,” a source said.
2. What happens next with Horowitz and Fox?
The firing of Horowitz happened about a week after parent company 21st Century Fox began investigating sexual harassment at the Fox Sports workplace, according to the Los Angeles Times. This situation could get ugly fast. Both sides are lawyering up. A legal battle seems likely.
Horowitz, who had overseen programming for FS1 since May 2015, hired heavyweight litigator Patty Glaser to represent him, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Glaser immediately went on the attack Monday.
“The way Jamie has been treated by Fox is appalling. At no point in his tenure was there any mention by his superiors or human resources of any misconduct or an inability to adhere to professional conduct,” she said in a statement. “Jamie was hired by Fox to do a job, a job that until today he has performed in exemplary fashion. Any slanderous accusations to the contrary will be vigorously defended.”
Fox Sports hired its own powerhouse attorney, Daniel Petrocelli. In a Soviet-style move, the network immediately scrubbed Horowitz’s bio from its website.
“Mr. Horowitz’s termination was fully warranted and his lawyer’s accusations are ill-informed and misguided,” Petrocelli said in a statement.
In the wake of Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly, Fox is justifiably worried about sexual harassment allegations. That appears to be the charge against Horowitz, according to Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated.
As my SN colleague Tadd Haislop noted, the language in Fox Sports boss Eric Shanks’ memo Monday indicated the Horowitz firing had nothing to do with performance.
“Everyone at FOX Sports, no matter what role we play, or what business, function or show we contribute to — should act with respect and adhere to professional conduct at all times. These values are non-negotiable.,” wrote Shanks.
3. What happens to Horowitz’s hires at FS1?
More dominoes are going to fall as those allies leave or are pushed out, sources told Sporting News.
FS1 truly was the House that Jamie built; the former ESPN executive lured multiple people away from Bristol to work in front of and behind the camera. For on-air talent, he hired former ESPNers Bayless, Cowherd, Jason Whitlock, Cris Carter, Doug Gottlieb, Ray Lewis and Chris Broussard. Behind the camera, he recruited Dixon, Whit Albom and other executives.
These people are personally loyal to Horowitz. Bayless and Cowherd have gone out of their way to say publicly they would not have left ESPN for FS1 if not for Horowitz. Without Horowitz, what loyalty do they have to Fox?
MORE: Ray Lewis joining Fox, FS1 as NFL analyst
Similarly, Fox Sports, led by Eric Shanks and John Entz, has zero professional loyalty to Horowitz’s hires. Whoever the next FS1 boss is, he or she will want to bring in his or her own on-air talent, producers, directors, etc.
Many Horowitz hires have contracts extending for years, but ESPN’s recent layoffs of 100 on-air employees show just how much a contract is worth when a company really wants to go in a new direction.
“New executives are like new GMs in baseball: They bring in their own team of players, coaches and front-office executives,” a source told Sporting News. “Jamie brought in his people; the next person will bring in theirs. That’s the way it goes.”
Bayless, Shannon Sharpe and Joy Taylor of “Undisputed” (9:30 a.m. ET) should be the most concerned. Their show has received almost all of the promotional support from FS1. Horowitz, Bayless and Stephen A. Smith created the “Embrace Debate” format at ESPN2’s “First Take.” They made each others’ careers and millions of dollars in the process.
Bayless, for example, makes $5 million to $6 million per year and still has three years left on his deal. However, the next FS1 boss will not have the same personal loyalty to Bayless that Horowitz had. If I were Skip, I’d be worried right now in my Malibu beach house.
What about the 20 writers and editors that Horowitz recently pinkslipped at FoxSports.com? I would love to see them get their jobs back. But it will be up to Horowitz’s replacement to decide if they want FoxSports.com to do real journalism — or function as an infomercial for FS1 talk shows like “Undisputed” and “Speak for Yourself.”
4. Will this affect the rollout of new FS1 shows like ‘First Things First?’
Probably not.
FS1 focuses on introducing one new show at a time. The network has spent time and money promoting the Sept. 5 debut of its first national morning show with Carter and Wright (6-9 a.m. ET). The hosts made the rounds in New York, meeting with media buyers and trying to demonstrate their chemistry, according to Ad Age.
MORE: Mike Hill rips FS1 colleague Jason Whitlock
Then again, FS1 has axed other prominent shows such as “Fox Sports Live” with Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole, “America’s Pregame” with Mike Hill and Molly McGrath and “Crowd Goes Wild" with Regis Philbin.
The morning TV competition will become fiercer when ESPN debuts Greenberg’s new solo morning show Jan. 1. Also, “First Things First” will be more expensive to produce since it will be shot in New York rather than at Fox’s studios in Los Angeles.
If I were Carter and Wright, I’d rent rather than buy in the Big Apple.
Could Fox Sports pivot back to news/highlights? Possibly. They’ve got talented news anchors like Mike Hill sitting around doing nothing. There’s an opening for a new 9 a.m. ET morning show, between “First Things First” (6 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET) and “Undisputed” (9:30 to Noon ET).
ESPN has found success with its midnight Scott Van Pelt “SportsCenter.” I could see Fox launching another late night news/highlight show, this time without Canadian anchors Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole.
5. What happens to the ‘Embrace Debate’ format?
That’s the real question as Horowitz — the godfather of embrace debate — exits stage left.
He gambled on embracing “opinionists” such as Bayless, Cowherd and Whitlock. News? Highlights? Please. Horowitz left that to his former colleagues at ESPN; he dumped “Fox Sports Live” and fired 20-plus writers and editors still left at FoxSports.com.
ESPN still covers news. The network recently scored a huge coup by hiring NBA scoop machine Adrian Wojnarowski.
But during its recent layoffs, ESPN also purged ace reporters like Ed Werder, Marc Stein and Jayson Stark while keeping opinionists like Smith and Max Kellerman. Also, new ESPN shows like “The Six” (the updated version of the 6 p.m. “SportsCenter”) with Michael Smith and Jemele Hill focus more on the hosts’ opinions than news and highlights.
MORE: ESPN vs. FS1 tuns four friends into rivals
The future will be a mix of opinion, news and and highlights. Look for more two- or four-person shows like ESPN’s new Mike Greenberg morning show, “Pardon the Interruption” and FS1’s “Speak for Yourself.” Look for more news/information people to join the unemployment line.
So “Embrace Debate” lives. It’s just mutating into a different form.
