The return of primetime boxing on Fox will not include all of its friends along for the ride, at least for the time being.
In a development first reported by Sports Business Journal, a meeting held by officials at Fox and FS1 on Monday resulted in a number of employees being let go along with a considerable amount of shoulder programming. Included among the batch was the popular studio show Inside PBC Boxing, which generally ran two unique installments per month on Fox Sports platforms but for now will not be included in future programming schedules.
“Today, we announced programming changes designed to better address the needs of our business,” read a statement from Fox Sports on Monday. “As a result, some positions in our production department have been eliminated.”
The announcement comes on the heels of previous reports for Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Fox presenting its first post-pandemic telecast on July 25. The event will be headlined by a welterweight secondary title fight between Jamal James and Thomas Dulorme, a bout which was originally due to take place on April 11 in James’ hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Both were preparing to make the Fox Sports rounds for interviews and pre-fight features heading into the fight, only for the event to get shut down due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The fight was able to be rescheduled after the California State Athletic Commission provided the pathway for boxing to return in state. Events in the foreseeable future will take place without fans in attendance, with the July 25 card likely to take place on a studio lot in the greater Los Angeles area.
Along with the absence of fans will now also come such cards no longer carrying regular pre-fight segments which would follow athletes around during training and in everyday life. As one network insider pointed out to BoxingScene.com on the condition of anonymity, “It’s tough to do shoulder programming during a pandemic with social distancing.”
BoxingScene.com has learned that the possibility exists for at least Inside PBC Boxing—hosted by Kate Abdo and including recurring expert analysts and former multi-time champions Shawn Porter and Abner Mares—to one day return to airwaves in a regular capacity. For now, the plan is for such shows to be utilized as shoulder programming for upcoming Pay-Per-View events.
The same approach is being taken for WWE Smackdown, the pro wrestling series which has aired every Friday on Fox in primetime since last September shortly after Fox Sports acquired the rights. Several wrestling outlets have attributed the cutbacks for WWE programming to low ratings, with its WWE Backstage series only to be rolled out for PPVs and blockbuster events.
No such specific cause was offered for cutback to network boxing programming. A spokesperson for Fox Sports declined comment to BoxingScene.com beyond the company’s official statement.
Despite the programming shakeup, Fox Sports still plans to run a steady stream of live boxing beginning with the July 25 show. From there, live cards will air on Fox and FS1 at a far more frequent rate throughout the remainder of 2020 than prior to the current global health crisis.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox