Fox Sports Live is exactly like old-school SportsCenter, and I love it

By Kels Dayton
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Updated: August 25, 2013

Something funny happened when I turned on my TV the other morning.

And when I say funny…I mean hilarious. It was like watching Kenny Mayne, back when he was still alive.

I saw two anchors sitting at a desk, joking around, talking sports.

They were laughing and shouting catch phrases at the TV screen, yelling “Camera Change!” at a camera change, and mentioning that there were too many graphics on the screen and that pretty soon they would be able do the show wearing nothing but Donovan McNabb’s multi-colored, possibly fluorescent socks.

For the first time since Scott Van Pelt had hair, I laughed out loud during a sports highlights show.

Something about it was both new and oddly familiar, and I missed that feeling like I miss Dunkaroos and Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball, and playing Super Mario World.

Then it hit me like the smell of Charley Steiner’s jockstrap from the freeway.

Fox Sports 1 had recreated old-school SportsCenter, or at least brought back its mojo with a pair of hilariously Onion-esque anchors in Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole.

And, you’re not going to believe this, but…

They showed the highlights from the games the night before….AS IF THEY SOMEHOW KNEW THAT I HADN’T SEEN EVERY SINGLE THING THAT HAPPENED IN SPORTS LAST NIGHT!!

They had fun while reading the sports…..AS IF THEY SOMEHOW KNEW I LIKED TO HAVE FUN WHILE WATCHING TV!!!

It’s tough to turn the channel when Charissa Thompson (right) is on the screen. (Right?)

Throw in the beautiful Charissa Thompson, a panel of entertaining ex-athletes in Donovan McNabb, Andy Roddick and Gary Payton, and a terrific interview with LeBron, and I was almost in tears.

When the show ended, I stood up and started slow-clapping like Charles Dutton at the end of Rudy.

Now, I’m not a big fan of the Fox brand. I think Rupert Murdoch is a cartoon villain, and Fox News is the equivalent of broadcast tear gas spewing out on the American public like the BP oil spill in the Gulf.

Also, it hasn’t even been a week yet.

But so far, Fox Sports Live is a gem.

It has picked up on what ESPN lost in its journey from the underdog, scrappy niche network that covered the World Dog Jumping Championships to the Evil Empire that takes itself way too seriously. It’s exactly what it said it would be–FUN.

Hannah Storm held a televised giggle-thon when this happened during ESPN’s embarrassing coverage of Jets training camp in 2012.

ESPN has turned every piece of trivial football information into a debate. They’ve decided to analyze whether or not LeBron’s 10:30 bowel movement was greater than Michael Jordan’s 1992 bout with diarrhea that left Utah Jazz janitors astounded and devastated at the same time.

So for a change, Fox Sports Live focused on the things that matter. There was no garbage, and no gratuitous football talk, but there were plenty of highlights and scores. (What a concept!)

While the Worldwide Leader has spent the past six or seven years basically pretending that baseball doesn’t exist, Fox Sports Live gave me the A.L. West standings on the side of the screen during the A’s highlight. I didn’t even have to check my phone or flip it to MLB Network’s Quick Pitch (which I had done most summer mornings).

They featured a terrific one-on-one interview with LeBron James, where he said his top 3 players of all-time were Michael Jordan, Dr. J, and Larry Bird. (Apparently LeBron thinks the NBA was founded in the ’80s.)

The production value on the interview with LeBron was great; the camera shots were tight and clean, and the audio was crisp. Every piece of video moved along quickly, and the segment felt tight and meaningful. This is the way SportsCenter used to feel.

That’s why I fell in love with Sportscenter so many years ago. It was fun, informative, and really good TV.

This is what ESPN used to be like.

Back in the ’90s, Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, Craig Kilborn, Kenny Mayne, Karl Ravech cracked jokes, and mocked taking themselves too seriously. Today’s ESPN features a truckload of anchors who could drop off the face of the Earth tomorrow, and no one would even remember who they are in 10 days. Sage Steele, Chris McKendry, Jay Harris and Jay Crawford, just to name a few.

I’m not sure how Fox Sports 1 is going to fare as a whole; or whether they have enough meaningful live sports programming to challenge ESPN. They certainly are going to need deep pockets. But Fox Sports Live is a sip of water after a long trek through ESPN’s dry, frowning while debating desert.

Craig Kilborn used to christen the start of every SportsCenter show by saying, “Welcome to the feel-good edition.”

For the first time since he had a career, a sports show made me feel good again.

And isn’t that what it’s all about?