Hello, Jillian ... do we have a bad connection?
Conveniently glossed over from Fox Sports' less-than-newsworthy conference call announcement Monday morning that Joe Buck will indeed replace James Brown as the new host for "Fox NFL Sunday" in a traveling pregame show is the titilating revelation that weather chick Jillian Barberie is no longer part of the circus.
Since the Fox pregame show will be away from the L.A. studio for all but three Sundays this fall, the recently remarried Barberie (to aspiring actor Grant Reynolds) decided the travel wouldn't work out with her weekday morning duties at KTTV Channel 11's "Good Day L.A," according to "Fox NFL Sunday" coordinating producer Scott Ackerson, who we tracked down after an hour-long teleconference with media reporters ended Monday morning without mention of the decision.
"It's all a scheduling thing," said Ackerson. "Taking her on the road with us wasn't going to work with her other stuff. I didn't want the alternative, to put her in the studio to do the weather, because to me that interaction isn't there. And since that's the case, it's time to move on and go with something else. I liked her in terms of what she did for our show. To me, it worked. But going on the road now without her, to me, that's the most disappointing thinsg about this whole new setup."
At least we can keep abreast of Jillian's career on the next "Skating with the Stars."
Frank Caliendo will continue to do his taped comedic pieces for the show. How about this for an opening skit: Dress up like Jillian and start flirting with Buck.
It's been pretty well known for weeks that Fox would probably have Buck do both the play-by-play on its most important NFL game on its schedule, and then figure out a way so that he could at least host the Emmy-Award-winning pregmae show since Brown left for CBS a few months ago. Working out all the logicial problems was what kept the announcement from becoming official until Monday. That's the "fresh" media-friendly angle that Fox is now taking as a way to keep up with the changes going on with "Monday Night Football" moving from ABC to ESPN and NBC making all kinds of noise with its new Sunday night package.
To handle the halftime and post-game reports when Buck goes off to cover the game, Curt Menefee will sit in and try to corral Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long and Jimmy Johnson. Fox also indicated it may hire someone else to do the in-game updates that JB so deftly handled in the past.
But the quiet exit of the obnoxious Barberie, who gave Long the willies anyway, was the surprising non-relevation from the hour-long conference call that wasn't even mentioned by Fox Sports execs David Hill and Ed Goren.
Barberie has been trying to add some of that "Fox Attitude" factor to the pregame since her arrival on the first show. Last season, the pregame show even brought along then-"Stacked" lead actress Pamela Anderson to co-host the weather segment with Barberie, turning up the boob factor.
In a press release that Fox issued later in the morning, they report simply that "Buck joins Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson, Pam Oliver, insider Jay Glazer and comedian Frank Caliendo this season, beginning with the 2006 premiere on Sunday, September 10 at Noon ET/9:00 AM PT."
It's not as if Barberie has other talents. That, she'll have to continue with some self discovery.
The first Fox NFL Sunday road show will be from Jacksonville on Sept. 10 (leading into the Jaguars' game against Dallas). Week 2 is in Philadelphia for the Eagles-New York Giants game, and Week 3 is in Seattle for the Seahawks-Giants contest. Beyond that, it'll be decided on the quality of the game that Fox wants to send Buck and Troy Aikman to call.
Fox also announced from its seminar in New York that its broadcasting pairings would include:
A=team: Buck, Aikman, Oliver (as long as Aikman doesn't wear the mohawk):
B=team: Dick Stockton, Daryl Johnston, Tony Siragusa
And the rest:
Kenny Albert, Brian Baldinger, Chris Myers
Sam Rosen, Tim Ryan
Ron Pitts, Terry Donohue
Matt Vasgersian, JC Pearson, Jay Glazer
Comments
Am I the only one who finds Jillian soooo annoying? I know the media tends to drop the term "beautiful" on just about anybody on screen, but this is defintely blown out of proportion...
Posted by: Anonymous | August 14, 2006 12:13 PM
Anyone else surprised Jillian married a white non-athlete? She had been making the rounds with John Salley and Derek Fisher, among others.
Posted by: Hideki Matt Suhey | August 14, 2006 02:49 PM
Matt, where do you get your 'making the rounds' info from? Having dinner with or being seen talking to someone in a bar isn't the same as putting her ankles on anyone's shoulders...
Posted by: Roger | August 14, 2006 03:00 PM
Jillian admitted "making out" w/D. Fish on Howard Stern...found this blurb after a quick Google. http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:Ik6SFFKPB4cJ:www.socaluncensored.com/board/showthread.php3%3Fgoto%3Dlastpost%26t%3D4624+%22derek+fisher%22+%22jillian+barberie%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=8&client=firefox-a
Gimme a little more time, and I'll give you more cites.
Posted by: Hideki Matt Suhey | August 14, 2006 04:11 PM
Good! Lets hope more bad stuff happens to Jigglian.
Posted by: USC_89 | August 14, 2006 06:05 PM
Your "piece" on Jillian was very "titilating." I'd rate it a 36C.
Posted by: Dick Miller, Hemet CA, also known as Viagra Villas | August 15, 2006 09:15 AM
Another loss....
Posted by: wendy.fabrizio@siemens.com | August 16, 2006 06:09 AM
I have to say I'm sick of Jillian...she is very self absorbed and you don't get much news from fox11 anymore, they spend too much time joking around and letting Jillian talk about her husband, celebrity friends, sexlife, etc. I need a new news channel to watch.
Posted by: Maggie | September 8, 2006 08:22 AM
So interesting that all the negative posts are from females,.....hmmmmmmmm
So predictable.
Posted by: Craig | October 1, 2006 10:14 AM