TORONTO – TSN announced last week that its popular nighttime sports anchors, Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole (as well as the much abused, if never seen Producer Tim), have been drafted by Fox to host a nightly newscast on the U.S. broadcaster’s Fox Sports 1 network launching in August.
Fox reportedly announced today that the Canadian sports broadcasting duo will be the primary highlight team for Fox Sports Live, FS1’s flagship three-hour, live news show that will compete with ESPN’s SportsCenter when it airs weeknights at 11 p.m.
The well-loved anchor team will continue hosting TSN's SportsCentre until late June. When the new U.S. channel launches, it's expected to have a potential viewing audience of about 90 million subscribers.
“It is with mixed emotions that all of us at TSN and Bell Media bid farewell to Jay and Dan,” said Phil King, president of CTV programming and sports, in a release. “I’m sure Jay and Dan will thrive on U.S. television and endear themselves to a whole new legion of fans.”
“Every single day I went into work at TSN, I knew I was going to have fun. It’s a unique and rare work environment that I never took for granted. I am forever indebted to TSN for letting me be a part of it for the past 10 years,” said O’Toole in the statement.
“I started at TSN in 1996 as an editorial assistant on Sportsdesk, writing highlights for Michael Landsberg and Jim Van Horne, and now I leave the network with a very heavy heart because it is the place I have called home for so many years,” said Onrait.
