Wednesday night's unveiling of FSN's new 10:00pm ET
sports news show, "National Sports Report," can be
"considered a Beta test," according to Bob Keisser of the
Long Beach PRESS-TELEGRAM, who writes the show featured "new
graphic packages with greater detail, and greater
opportunities for the anchors and guest analysts to express
opinions with their facts." Since being named to the post,
FSN Exec Producer Scott Ackerson's effort has been "directed
at redefining the studio show." Ackerson: "I can't believe
there's just one way of doing sports news television. Right
now, everybody does the same thing game scores, highlights,
analysis" (L.B. PRESS-TELEGRAM, 4/14). In CA, Evan
Tuchinsky writes that FSN "continues to confuse people with
gratuitous name changes." Tuchinsky: "After building a
brand name with 'Fox Sports News,' (which itself has
undergone renaming after renaming) [FSN] decided to call its
nightly sports newscast 'The National Sports Report.' Why
bother? True, [FSN] unveils local sports news this summer,
so some delineation will be needed. But couldn't someone
have come up with a more clever, less confusing and less
generic way than 'The National Sports Report' and 'The
Regional News Report'? Creative people, send your resumes
to [FSN], care of executive vice president Arthur Smith or
... Scott Ackerson" (Riverside PRESS-ENTERPRISE, 4/14).
