National Sports Report

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The National Sports Report was a "sportscast" that aired on Fox Sports Net.

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.

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. In 1999, Olbermann used the FSN show to break news of the contract signed between Alex Rodriguez and the Texas Rangers for a record $252 million over 10 years. On April 1, 2001, Olbermann used the same show to relay an April Fool's joke about the signing of Michael Jordan by the Washington Wizards; ironically, the actual signing occurred in September of that year.

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
Los Angeles: West & West 2 (now Prime Ticket)
Seattle: Northwest, Detroit

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 In many of the remaining markets, including West and Northwest, it has been replaced by FSN Live.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."

[edit] Trivia

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.
The tagline leading into all commercial breaks for the first year or so was "Fox Sports News rolls on."