Breakfast Ball went on the air without doing any dress rehearsals.
FS1 debuted its new morning show in its post-Skip Bayless lineup on Aug. 26. It marked the third time in three years that FS1 attempted to build a morning show around Craig Carton. And while Carton is prominently featured on the show, which used to bear his name, this isn’t The Carton Show anymore, wrote Awful Announcing’s Brandon Contes — also the host of The AA Pod.
And that’s because the new hit morning show includes Danny Parkins and Mark Schlereth, who took center stage in the show’s opening week. And speaking of the first week, the trio hopped on the Awful Announcing Podcast alongside Contes to debrief on their unconventional launch and share behind-the-scenes stories from those first few chaotic days.
“It was weird; it was definitely unusual,” Parkins says. “We did a couple. We all went out to dinner on a Wednesday at a steakhouse in New York, did a few things on a Thursday and Friday, and then we’re on the air on Monday. So, it was obviously weird. I thought I was going to be much more nervous than I was. And, I think, the only thing I can attribute that to is because Craig just kind of alluded to it like we all kind of took gambles in different ways on this.
“I have a soon-to-be five-year-old and a two-year-old and had recently purchased my first-ever house in my dream city near my family, doing [my dream job]. I moved for this. And so, I was living away from my wife, away from my kids, trying to sell a house, flying back to Chicago every Friday. So, my personal life was a lot more stressful than launching a national TV show, which should be stressful in its own right. But, I was able to kind of just be like, ‘Well, the show has to work because I’m doing all of these things in my personal life to make it work.’
“So, I was just very focused on I’m here; I’m here for a reason. We’ve got to make this good and we’ve got to make this fun. And so the show was fun because it was a relief of, like, I don’t have to think about mortgage rates, and contractors, and preschools, and childcare, and my wife’s job. Not to get too real or personal, but it was like, ‘Okay, I signed a contract. Clearly, people believed that I can do this. I’m here. I’m doing it. And this is honestly — in some weird way — simpler right now than my personal life because of all those moving pieces.”
That first day, Parkins wasn’t really thinking about the fact that they hadn’t done many dress rehearsals— he was thinking about how and when he’d sell his home in Chicago.
Carton chimed in on behalf of Parkins for a moment.
“Before we ever started this show, Danny, as a Chicago sports talk radio guy, was given an opportunity to fill in for Colin Cowherd,” said Carton. “And do a solo show in Colin’s spot — a three-hour TV show — without many people knowing who he was outside of Chicago and Kansas City. Doing this show is easy compared to doing that, when you know that show essentially is your demo tape. That’s the show you proved to Fox executives, ‘I can do this, and I can carry a show.’ And I can guarantee you, if Danny had failed at that, he’s not doing this.”
The rest is history.
“This is easy compared to that,” Carton added.
“Well, thank you, there’s definitely some truth to that,” replied Parkins. “I had flown out three or four different times to do appearances on First Things First, and I’m like, ‘Man, those were easy.’ I’m sitting next to my best friend (Nick Wright); I’m the fourth voice on an established show; they tell you what you’re going to talk about, and you do eight or 10 minutes at a time. And every time I’d leave, they’d be like, ‘Do you want to come back in two weeks? Do you want to come back in four weeks?’ So, I knew it was building into something.
“And then when they asked me to fill in for Colin, I was like, ‘Oh, holy sh*t; something might be happening here.’ And then when the Colin thing ended, there was no ‘Come back for this’ or ‘Go to New York for this,’ it was just kind of like, ‘Yeah, we’ll be in touch.’ And so, I had no idea what was coming. And there’s definitely some truth to, like, three hours solo TV when you’ve never done that before — and, now, Mark Schlereth has to read the intros, I’m like, ‘Okay, what do I got to do? I just gotta give takes.’
“The Colin thing, it was huge for me to convince myself that I could do it. That is a hundred percent true.”
And it certainly appears that Parkins has fully embraced the challenge. What began as a leap into the unknown swiftly turned into an opportunity to showcase his talents — and now, it’s evident that he’s settled into his rhythm with this new role.
The same can be said for the rest of the Breakfast Ball crew, who have all found their footing and are clearly thriving in this fresh dynamic.
Listen to the full episode of the Awful Announcing Podcast featuring the Breakfast Ball crew of Craig Carton, Danny Parkins, and Mark Schlereth beginning Friday, Dec. 6. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. For more content, subscribe to AA’s YouTube page.
