Editor’s note: This story is revised from the print edition.
Fox Sports wants to hire Jamie Horowitz, a creative and controversial executive who has had stints at ESPN and NBC, to oversee all of its studio programming.
 |
HOROWITZ
|
The 38-year-old is mulling a formal offer from the network that would see him relocate from the New York area to Los Angeles and report to Fox Sports President Eric Shanks, according to several sources. It’s not clear what Horowitz’s title would be.
Fox Sports declined to comment on the offer. A representative for Horowitz also declined to comment.
One of the most creative minds in the business, Horowitz is expected to make a decision as early as this week about whether he wants to move his family across the country. Horowitz parted ways with NBC in November, where he was getting ready to oversee the “Today” show. He is working as an executive producer on the HBO series “State of Play” with Peter Berg.
 |
Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole anchor “Fox Sports Live.”
Photo by: RAY MICKSHAW / FOX SPORTS 1
|
If Horowitz takes the Fox Sports job, it would represent the biggest shake-up in the company’s production department since the launch of Fox Sports 1 nearly 20 months ago. At the end of February, one of Fox Sports’ original employees, Scott Ackerson, retired as executive vice president of news.
Executive producer John Entz oversees both studio and event production as executive producer, a title he shares with Shanks. If Horowitz comes on board, Entz would oversee all of the company’s event production and leave the studio shows to Horowitz.
Fox Sports executives are most intrigued by Horowitz’s experience at ESPN, where he spent more than eight years through 2014. Fox Sports 1 launched in August 2013 with executives saying that it would compete with ESPN. Ratings, though, have been closer to ESPNU, particularly for its studio programming.
The channel canceled the Regis Philbin-led “Crowd Goes Wild” after less than a year amid tiny ratings. A show led by Jay Glazer met a similar fate, as did studio shows around soccer and the NFL. The channel’s signature news show, “Fox Sports Live,” has undergone several changes since launch.
Horowitz’s reputation comes from his success in overseeing ESPN’s successful daytime lineup of studio shows, such as “First Take” and “SportsNation.” As vice president of original programming and production at ESPN, he was instrumental in bringing Keith Olbermann back to the network.
Horowitz left ESPN last year to take a job running the “Today” show on NBC. He was given a mandate to make changes at the show, which had lost its ratings lead to ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
But a month before he officially was slated to take over, NBC parted ways with the executive amid reports that some of the changes he was considering went further than some NBC executives had anticipated.
Thanks in part to the start of the NASCAR season, Fox Sports 1 has seen a 30 percent ratings jump from its first to its second year.
