To the delight of snarky bloggers everywhere comedian Jay Mohr is back on the sports scene with an new column and an online show at FoxSports.com.
The Alternative with Jay Mohr will feature twenty minutes worth of video segments including monologues, sketch comedy and remote reports according to the Hollywood Reporter.
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The weekly show to premier later this month will be the first of several online only “sportstainment” shows Fox Sports plans to introduce in coming months, said Ed Bunnell, VP of programming.
Deadspin is already predicting failure following Mohr’s previous two attempts at sports journalism: “you may remember Mohr from his cable series with ESPN (canceled) and column with SI.com (dropped),” which were not so well received.
But online video and Fox may be the perfect combination for Mohr. His style was too minor league for Sports Illustrated (i.e. Why the WNBA is Unwatchable) and his late-night talk show didn’t quite make the team over at ESPN (see the Jalen Rose clip below).
Where these previous sports exploits failed, the issue may not have been the content but the medium. Mohr is funny, has an audience, and every so often he makes a comment – or several – worth repeating.
Remarks like, “I think that Bud Selig looks like Stephen Hawking” and “All NBA referees are on the take,” will fly a lot better at Fox than at SI, and will be better accepted online than on TV.
This is an opportunity for both Fox and Mohr. If done well, The Alternative could become the first of many online originals to tap into America’s huge market of sports fans, bringing an engaged, opinionated, passionate audience to the network and the web.
