New York radio host Mike Francesa’s criticisms of Fox’s U.S. Open coverage (simulcast on Fox Sports 1, making that #FrancesaOnFox hashtag work in a couple of ways) Monday drew plenty of attention from across the media world, but they also were noticed within the company. Fox Sports Live anchors Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole elected to use their patented “Mid-Show On-Camera Appearance” Monday night to launch a new segment, “Mike Francesa Reviews Our Golf Coverage”:
https://twitter.com/FOXSportsLive/status/613176855928016896
So, that’s Fox Sports anchors using Fox Sports Live airtime to play comments from a radio host whose show is simulcast on Fox Sports 1, comments that are about the U.S. Open on Fox. If this gets any more meta, it might be the long-awaited Community movie. For those of us who love the meta-commentary, this is pretty fantastic, though, and the execution throughout is solid. Onrait starts with “Of course I’m referring to New York City sports radio legend Mike Francesa, whose show can be seen every afternoon on this network, when it’s not pre-empted,” which is a pretty funny line about Francesa’s noted complaints about his show being bumped for obscure higher-rated events such as the UEFA Champions League. It’s also great that Onrait and O’Toole spend most of the segment talking, and only spotlight Francesa’s “They talk too much” line, rather than his five full minutes of complaints.
Of course, this is just the latest entry in this enjoyable back-and-forth, and maybe now Mike will know who these guys are. Jay and Dan have gone out of their way to promote Mike in the past, too. It’s worth noting that like a certain podcast disclaimer, it’s all in good (“The 1 For“) fun, too, and Onrait tweeted Monday night that he and O’Toole loved Francesa’s rant. Honestly, the more of these subtle jokes we see, the better. It’s entertaining stuff, and it’s much more fun than a certain Worldwide Leader’s attempts to snuff out intra-company back-and-forth. Onrait and O’Toole might want to be careful, though; they don’t want to run too far afoul of House Francesa.
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