National Sports Report

The National Sports Report was a "sportscast" that aired on United States television channel Fox Sports Net.

Brief history

The program began in 1996, when FSN was launched, as Fox Sports News. The show aired twice a night, at 6 and 10 p.m. It was the national network's equivalent to SportsCenter. The tagline leading into all commercial breaks for the first year or so was "Fox Sports News rolls on."

By 1998, the show was renamed National Sports Report and the shows were cut to a half-hour each. The Sunday night program was briefly renamed The Keith Olbermann Evening News. The hour-long show was anchored by Olbermann, the former ESPN sportscaster, with Alex Flanagan as a reporter.

Kevin Frazier (now at Entertainment Tonight) was famous for refusing to say the name of tennis phenom Anna Kournikova on-air because she had never won a singles tournament. Instead, he used nicknames like "Miss Thang" or "From Russia With Love" (as in the James Bond movie). Frazier wanted to make a point that she was overrated and received too much publicity for her lack of talent.

On April 1, 2001, Olbermann reported that Michael Jordan had decided to come out of retirement and return to NBA basketball with the Washington Wizards. Although the story was presented as an April Fool's joke, Jordan would sign with the Wizards the following September.

Regional sports reports

By 2000, many markets paired the NSR with a series of "regional sports reports." In fact, all regions (except North) had their own reports in 2001, originating at the following studios:

• New York: New York
• Boston: New England
• Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh, Midwest
• Atlanta: South, Arizona
• Dallas: Southwest
• Chicago: Chicago, Bay Area, and Ohio
• Denver: Rocky Mountain
• Los Angeles: West & West 2 (now Prime Ticket)
• Seattle: Northwest, Detroit

The Southwest Sports Report was originally broadcast from two studios, with the other in Houston. This occurred because co-host Spencer Tillman apparently did not want to uproot his family from Houston.

Cancellation

In 2002, the NSR was cancelled outright and only the regional reports remained. FSN would not "replace" the show until FSN Final Score debuted on July 3, 2006.

Only a few of the regional reports exist today. In 2002, Cablevision, which owns many of the FSN affiliates, removed the New York, Chicago, Bay Area, and Ohio reports from the air. The New England Sports Report remained, but as a talk show (called New England Sports Tonight) instead of a newscast. In many of the remaining markets, including West and Northwest, it has been replaced by FSN Live. Most of these programs are pre- and postgame shows of the teams shown on FSN, but some of these are also talk shows; for example, shows on FSN Rocky Mountain called The Barbershop and Raw Sports with Dino Costa.

Anchors

• Kevin Frazier
• Kevin Garcia
• Brad Goode
• Steve Lyons
• Chris Myers
• Keith Olbermann
• Chris Rose
• Randy Sparage
• Van Earl Wright
• Jeanne Zelasko