While an official announcement hasn’t yet been made, it appears that Fox Sports is bringing back Garbage Time with Katie Nolan.
The host is the subject of a feature in the latest issue of New York magazine, and the end of the article includes a tidbit mentioning that Fox Sports says a second season of Garbage Time is “in the works.” Sports Illustrated‘s Richard Deitsch e-mailed the network for some clarification and confirmation in his “Media Circus” column and was told, “FOX Sports is working on plans for Garbage Time to continue beyond this first season.” That sounds rather affirmative.
As Jessica Roy notes in her feature on Nolan, Garbage Time was guaranteed 20 episodes and is 17 shows into that run. (However, the July 5 show was a “best of” compilation up against the Women’s World Cup final, and it’s uncertain whether or not that counts toward the 20-episode order.) But with a second season apparently in development, Nolan has some ideas on the type of show she’d like to do. In particular, she’d prefer to broaden the scope of a show to incorporate pop culture. (Whether or not she was referring to Garbage Time wasn’t entirely clear.)
Garbage Time drew respectable viewership for its debut episode and since then, the show’s audience has grown. According to Roy, a mid-April episode drew more than 1.6 million viewers. Obviously, Fox Sports is pleased with the increasing audience and sees an opportunity for further growth.
(Getting a write-up in New York magazine might help with that, especially in reaching out to a non-sports audience that may tune in out of curiosity. The story also includes an anecdote about playing hockey as a kid that seems like potential fodder for a movie, maybe the Just One of the Guys remake for which virtually no one has been asking.)
But as ESPN seems to be de-emphasizing programming built around individual personalities (especially those drawing high salaries), it’s intriguing to see Fox Sports make a further investment in one of its own. Obviously, the first step with Nolan was in giving her a stand-alone show. It appears to be doing well enough that the network wants to build on that and see where Garbage Time can go next.
