For the first time in four years, FOX will televise a pregame show for Major League Baseball coverage.
FOX will air a 30-minute pregame show prior to Major League Baseball coverage this season, Fox Sports Media Group announced Wednesday. MLB Network will produce the pregame show, which will be hosted by MLB Network anchor Matt Vasgersian and originate from the network’s New Jersey studios.
Along with Vasgersian, the studio show will feature a “rotating roster” of MLB Network analysts, including former ESPN and TBS analyst Harold Reynolds.
FOX last televised an MLB pregame show during the 2008 regular season, with host Jeanne Zelasko and analyst Kevin Kennedy. In recent years, pregame coverage has been anchored by Chris Rose at the site of one of the network’s regional telecasts.
Rose, according to a Fox Sports press release, will “[devote] his complete energy this year to his role as host of MLB Network’s popular show, Intentional Talk” (Fox Sports, 3/21). It was not clear whether Rose will have any role with MLB on FOX this season.
Of note, the pregame show will be shortened to fifteen minutes for the eight primetime MLB telecasts on FOX this season.
(Wednesday’s news from Fox Sports Media Group press release via The Futon Critic)
