Already losing out on its New Jersey Nets programming because of the NBA lockout, YES Network is planning to focus on its baseball roots, filling its schedule with two baseball-themed shows.
Starting Nov. 14, YES Network will produce a daily Hot Stove-style show called “Yankees Baseball Daily.” The one-hour show will air live in the 7 p.m. time slot from Monday through Thursday. YES Network will put together a “best of” edition of the show, with clips from earlier in the week, to run on Friday.
The show is slated to run through January. If the NBA season starts, the show’s time slot will be moved when it conflicts with a Nets game.
YES was scheduled to carry 30 Nets games through the end of the year, and most of those games are at risk due to the four-month lockout.
“I’ve wanted to revamp our Hot Stove show for a year or two now,” said John Filippelli, YES Network’s president of production and programming. “All it took was the NBA’s labor situation for us to take something we’ve been playing around with for years and make it work.”
Bob Lorenz will host the four-day-a-week live show from YES Network’s Stamford, Conn., studio. Jack Curry and Kimberly Jones will make regular appearances. The show will focus on the Yankees but also will feature news and interviews from across baseball. Fox example, Filippelli said, the show is planning to carry an extensive interview with Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera in the next few weeks.
The second show YES is planning to launch this month, around Thanksgiving, is called “Yankees All-Access.” The show will give a behind-the-scenes look at certain Yankees players, with Curry serving as host. Filippelli said YES is planning six or seven episodes.
Curry recently traveled to Taiwan during an MLB all-star team tour to conduct interviews with Yankees center fielder Curtis Granderson and second baseman Robinson Cano. Other players, including left fielder Brett Gardner, have expressed interest in participating, Filippelli said.
“We don’t want to be your average, run-of-the-mill RSN that just wants to fill time,” Filippelli said. “We may be a regional sports network, but we don’t act like one.”
