Amid much speculation that she will soon jump to ESPN, Katie Nolan will return to the FS1 airwaves Tuesday night for the first time in months — not as the host of her own show (which sounds unlikely to ever materialize) but as frontman for NFL Films Presents, which is produced by NFL Films.
Nolan tweeted a teaser Monday that featured her celebrating with the Patriots, interviewing Matt Ryan, punting with Marquette King, shopping with Brandon Marshall, floating in the Dead Sea with Roger Staubach and more.
NFL Films bounced from ESPN2 to FS1 a few years ago and added Nolan as a host last fall, but Fox has been conspicuously hesitant to promote the show. As Awful Announcing’s Ben Koo wrote a year ago…
There was no announcement or release about the new season. FS1’s Twitter account was too busy posting videos of hot takes from Shannon Sharpe and Jason Whitlock to tell followers the season premiere was on and Nolan was the new host. Nolan didn’t even tweet out to watch the show she’s now hosting, which is really odd given people will tweet out every mundane thought or detail of their day these days.
This year has been more of the same, with Nolan tweeting about NFL Films Presents but FS1’s social media ignoring it, and now we have some insight into why. During then-Fox Sports president Jamie Horowitz’s now-infamous presentation to the company’s digital team, in which he asked writers to ghostwrite columns for Colin Cowherd and Skip Bayless, he emphasized that he wanted to strengthen the Fox brand, not build up other brands.
Though he was referring at the time to digital properties like “The Fighter and the Kid,” the same logic likely extended to NFL Films Presents. The show doesn’t have Fox’s name on it, so Fox seems uninterested in promoting it. That means an enjoyable show with an engaging big-name host will continue to exist somewhat out of the mainstream sports fan’s consumption diet.
Anyway, the first episode of NFL Films Presents airs Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET. The show might be your only chance to see Katie Nolan on TV anytime soon.
About Alex Putterman
Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.