NEW YORK — ESPN's Samantha Ponder is already under pressure as she succeeds the legendary Chris Berman on "Sunday NFL Countdown" this season.
Well, at least rival Fox Sports wants to put more heat on the former "College GameDay" reporter/host, courtesy of Charissa Thompson's "Fox NFL Kickoff" pregame show.
With Berman benched at ESPN after 31 years, Fox Sports president Eric Shanks told Sporting News he sees an opening for Thompson's three-year-old "Fox NFL Kickoff" to surpass Ponder's "Sunday NFL Countdown" as the top NFL pregame show in the 11 a.m. to 12 noon E.T. Sunday time slot.
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That would enable Fox to beat its chest to advertisers about boasting the two most-watched Sunday NFL pregame shows from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET kickoff. The long-running "Fox NFL Sunday," with Terry Bradshaw, Curt Menefee, Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson, Michael Strahan and Jay Glazer, has reigned as the No. 1 NFL pregame show in the noon to 1 p.m. ET time slot for 23 straight years.
Sporting News reported Ponder had emerged as a surprise candidate to succeed Berman in early March. She was formally announced as the new 'Countdown" anchor a few weeks later.
Thompson's "Fox NFL Kickoff" beefed up its cast this season, adding Tony Gonzalez and Michael Vick to the returning Colin Cowherd and Dave Wannstedt. On Tuesday, I saw multiple promotional spots for "Fox NFL Kickoff" on FS1 shows such as "Speak for Yourself" (5 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET). So Fox is selling Thompson's Sunday show hard entering the 2017 season.
"Our No. 1 goal for 'Fox NFL Kickoff' this year is to get it to be No. 1," Shanks told me at a presser for FS1's new "First Things First." "No network has ever been No. 1 at 11 and 12 on (NFL) Sundays. That is our No. 1 goal for the NFL this season. You’ve already seen us promote 'Fox NFL Kickoff' much more than we have in the past. It’s a show we believe in, adding Tony (Gonzalez) and Mike Vick and having Charissa there long-term."
Shanks' reference to Thompson's "long-term" future is telling. With her contract set to expire after the 2017 NFL season, ESPN tried to woo Thompson back to ESPN to work on Mike Greenberg's new solo morning show that launches Jan. 1, 2018 from New York City.
But Fox made a strong push to re-sign Thompson, who started her on-air career with Fox. With Thompson recently dropping her Hollywood reporting gig on "Extra," her schedule is freeing up just in time for football season.
"Charissa is going to do more and more for us," noted Shanks. "She announced she’s not doing 'Extra' any more. Which gives us more Charissa."
The NFL's regular season TV ratings alarmingly dropped eight percent last season. But Thompson's "Fox NFL Kickoff" was a programming bright spot. The show averaged 1.341 million viewers and a 0.9 household TV rating, up 14 percent from 1.181 million viewers and the 0.8 rating the year before.
But if Shanks wants to overtake ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown" franchise, the attitude in Bristol is simple: Bring it On.
Berman's "Sunday NFL Countdown" remained the most watched NFL pregame show from 11 a.m. to 12 last season, averaging 1.47 million viewers,, according to ESPN's Bill Hofheimer. The two-hour show, airing from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET, competed against both "Fox NFL Kickoff" and "Fox NFL Sunday" as well as CBS Sports' "The NFL Today."
New time & new crew! #SundayNFLCountdown w/ @sam_ponder, Rex Ryan, @cwoodson24, @Hasselbeck & @RandyMoss begins 9/10 https://t.co/lUhUGftuow pic.twitter.com/QuKl9kHdD8
— Allie Stoneberg (@AllieStoneberg) July 27, 2017
ESPN is not standing pat with its flagship NFL pregame show, either. Besides giving Ponder the big chair, ESPN added ex-NFL coach Rex Ryan to the revamped crew of Randy Moss, Charles Woodson, Matt Hasselbeck, Adam Schefter, Chris Mortensen and Louis Riddick.
To make sure everybody gets their airtime, ESPN is also extending "Countdown" to three hours from two hours (10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET).
This will be the first time the show has run three hours since Berman's "Countdown" from 2011-14. To make way for the expanded "Countdown," ESPN dropped "NFL Insiders: Sunday Edition," which aired from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET in 2015 and 2016.
The league's own NFL Network, meanwhile, will start its Sunday pregame show at 7 a.m. ET, according to The Big Lead. Rich Eisen will anchor, as usual, along with analysts Deion Sanders, Michael Irvin, Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk and Steve Smith Sr, says TBL's Ryan Glasspiegel.
