Former tennis player Andy Roddick was profiled on HBO's "Real Sports" by Mary Carillo, who noted after he retired following last year's U.S. Open, FS1 execs "decided to make Roddick one of their leading men" for their signature "Fox Sports Live" show. Roddick said, "They were hiring me because they understood my personality and they didn't want to rein it in. They just want to make sure that I don't get them kicked off the air." Carillo said the stakes "couldn't be higher" as "billions of dollars are on the line in this clash of sports media titans." However, Roddick indicated that he "doesn't feel the pressure." Roddick: "Talking about sports is what I do, there's just going to be a camera involved and a schedule." Carillo referenced a press conference Roddick gave after getting beat by Roger Federer in the '07 Australian Open in which he was came across as "aggravated and annoyed" to the assembled press. She noted while standing with Roddick on the "Fox Sports Live" set that specific press conference "has done a lot for you." Roddick: "We're standing here probably because of it." Following the taped report, HBO's Bryant Gumbel noted Roddick's role at FS1 has "him doing three hours on-air five days a week." Gumbel: "Normally when guys retire, they don’t want to work that hard. Do you see him staying with this?" Carillo replied, "I do. He wants to be good at it and I think he will be very good at it." She called Roddick's jump to television a "very legitimate career move" ("Real Sports," HBO, 8/20).
MORE FIRST IMPRESSIONS: SI.com's Richard Deitsch wrote of some "early impressions" from "Fox Sports Live" and noted there is a "lot of content about Fox Sports 1 programming" on the show. That likely will "make the marketing and social media departments at Fox Sports happy but it gets very tiring for viewers the seventh time you refer to a joke Regis Philbin made earlier that day." The show's "highlight packaging needs upgrading," and the viewers can "see the difference" when comparing "Fox Sports Live" to ESPN's "SportsCenter." Co-hosts Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole will be an "acquired taste given their sardonic nature and show-within-a-show ethos," but Deitsch wrote he likes them "because they are smart." The pair hosted Sunday without the show's panel of experts and it was "a much smoother broadcast than the Saturday or Monday program." Meanwhile, "Fox Sports Live" has credited "other media outlets by specific name" on its ticker, an "excellent and correct" move (SI.com, 8/20).
