Everything remains copacetic at WFAN.
Gregg Giannotti handwaved the suggestion he or partner Boomer Esiason would take umbrage at Craig Carton’s reported new Fox Sports 1 morning show — a program that presumably will have overlap with the CBS Sports Network simulcast broadcast of Esiason and Giannotti.
“I would think if someone said, ‘Craig Carton is going up against you guys,’ it would have to be a radio show that would make me feel he was really going up against us. Not a TV show,” Giannotti said on-air Tuesday.
“People were tweeting me this, like, ‘Oh man, this has got to piss you guys off.’ No, it doesn’t. I’m actually happy for him that he gets an opportunity to do something like this. … People want to make that into something bigger than it is.”
Giannotti said he had not discussed Carton’s new venture with Esiason (he was off Tuesday with Jerry Recco filling in), but he did not think Esiason would have any issue with his former partner. Recco and producer Al Dukes, who also worked with Carton for years, dismissed the idea of tension as well.
Carton has an FS1 developmental deal, according to The New York Post, and is working with the network to launch a program this fall. The new gig will not impact his role as half of WFAN’s afternoon drive team with Evan Roberts. Beyond that, details are scarce.
It’s not clear what time Carton’s show would air or whether his arrival would signal a complete overhaul of FS1’s existing lineup. The content is also another big question. Carton is not a hardcore sports talker. He’s also not a hot take artist in the conventional sense. And many will be skeptical of his ability to have broad appeal nationally. But whatever the show ends up looking like, Carton has clear support from those at the ‘FAN.
“We want each other to win,” Giannotti said.
James Kratch can be reached at james.kratch@xlmedia.com
