FS1 today is launching its new show called "Speak for Yourself," co-starring former ESPN talking heads Colin Cowherd and Jason Whitlock, and the net is "more interested in people tuning in than necessarily liking either host," according to Rick Maese of the WASHINGTON POST. The weekday show, which will air in the 6:00-7:00pm ET window, "marks a sharp turn for FS1, which launched less than three years ago and still finds itself at the far fringes of most sports fans' daily menu." The net at first "tried news and highlights and struggled to gain a foothold." This new show represents a "nose-dive into the world of sports debate and opinion." Fox Sports National Networks President Jamie Horowitz said that the program will "represent much of what FS1 will aim to be: provocative, independent, original, blunt." With Cowherd, FS1 is "banking it can take a role player from ESPN's giant cast and make him both essential and ever-present." Horowitz said, "If your goal is to make a successful daily TV show, the paramount goal can't be likeability. It has to be authenticity." "Speak for Yourself" will be Cowherd's "biggest splash yet and FS1's biggest gamble with a counter-programming strategy that pits the new show directly against 'SportsCenter.'" Though FS1 execs "considered a variety of programming options -- solo shows for Whitlock and Cowherd? different sidekicks? -- they felt the chemistry was too good to split them up." FS1 is now "betting viewers will prefer debate and opinions to scores and highlights -- even if you don't necessarily like the guy who's doing much of the talking" (WASHINGTON POST, 6/13).
