Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Katie Nolan on whether she"ll stay with Fox Sports, why fans hate Joe Buck


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Updated at 9:40 a.m. ET

NEW YORK Only five years ago, Katie Nolan was a broke ex-bartender. Now"s she one of the rising stars at Fox Sports" FS1 cable channel. Her late-night show,"Garbage Time with Katie Nolan," just won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Social TV Experience.If Nolan gets her way, theshow (currently airing Wednesdays at midnight ET)will eventually be on four or five nights a week.

Nolan is still getting used to the idea of being a celebrity like Fox Sports colleague Erin Andrews or Michelle Beadle of ESPN. New FS1 programming czar Jamie Horowitz is giving her the promotional support her sports/comedy/pop cultureshow needs. She recently got the billboard treatment in Times Square and appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live." She was written up in Fast Company"s new list of "Most Creative People."Her TV audience is still small, averaging 50,000 viewers for a recent episode, but Fox says clips from her show attract more than 500,000views across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, FoxSports.com, FoxSports GO and Instagram.

MORE: Toughest talkers FS1 could hire to challenge ESPN

Nolan has also ruffled feathers with her willingness to zingFox colleagues. She told GQ in no uncertain termsthat she didn"t care for Rob Gronkowski"s lap dance with Fox reporter Julie Stewart-Binks onJason Whitlock"s TV show during Super Bowl week. She mocked, on-air, an article titled"How to land a husband at the Masters" by theFox-affiliated Outkick the Coverageblog.

Last week, she told Sporting News she would"ideally" like an 11 p.m. or 11:30 p.m. time slot. That set off FS1 colleague Dan OToole, even though she never mentioned O"Toole or partnerJay Onraitduring our interview. Their "Fox Sports Live with Jay and Dan" airs from 11 p.m.-11:30 p.m.

In this regard, the outspoken Nolan is workingfrom the Bill Simmons playbook. Simmons was never averse to calling out his ESPN colleagues, and that didn"t make him the most popular guy in Bristol.

MORE: Jason Whitlock gets real about The Undefeated

After all that excitement, what else does Nolan have to say? Here are excerpts from the rest of our interview with her:

SN: Doyou want tostay with Fox longterm? Bill Simmons makesno secret that he"d love to hire you.In one bit, heeven "took over"your show.

Nolan:Bill Simmons has hired literally everybody. Everyday on Twitter: "The Ringer would like to announce weve hired Obama once hes done being president."So I dont think they need me. Fox has been really great. Obviously, Ive met and interacted with a lot of people who have worked at the other major sports network. Its a very small community, sports. There really arent that many options. Its either like youre going to work at Fox,ESPN orNBC. And then theres Turner/Bleacher Report and The Ringer. Thats really it. Theres the big ones at the top, then the smaller ones at the bottom.

I dont know. I dont know what Im going to do. It"s all going to depend on opportunities and what comes along, butfrom the interactions Ive had with people whove worked around these other companies, Fox is great. When a co-worker says somethingI dont agree with, theyve let me openly say I disagree. Theyve told me whatever I say or do,theyll back me. Theyve been really good. I dont know what its like anywhere else. It could be one of those things where you leave and youre like, "Oh,my G*d, this is so much better."But the way it is right now is fantastic to me.

SN: Career-wise,do you see yourself staying in sports? Somelike Robin Roberts have gone into morning news or entertainment.

Nolan: I will say Im not a morning person at all. So "GMA," "Today" show,those are all immediately out. I wake up at noon. Even that is a struggle for me. I dont know. I dont look at it ascut and dried, black and white. It sort of goes back to the opportunities that come my way. How I feel, if theyll be good for me in the long run or not. I love sports. Im a huge sports fan and always havebeen. ...It"sall Ive done. I cant compare it to anything else. All is know is it"s been great for me. Fox has been very good to me and supportive of really weird stuff that weve tried to do. My fans are great. It"sbeen really cool to see younger women that are in college, who are studying sports journalism, reach out to say, "I didn"t know what I wanted to do and I see you doing this thing I didnt know I could do, and now thats what I want to do."

I don"t know if there would be that many rewarding experiences in any other walk of life. It"s important for me to be authentic, soI dont think theres ever a time I take a job doing a political show. I"m just not a political person. You either need to be really invested in sports or really invested in politics. It"s hard to follow both. I chose the one that doesnt have many real-life implications because it"s easier that way. When you lose in politics its a lot scarier than when you lose in a game depending on how you feel about it. I dont know where Ill be or what Ill do next. I dont know that it always has to be sports. Our show already is kind of sports/pop culture fused together. I love what Im doing now. The sports community has been really great.

SN: ESPN is so much bigger than FS1, but they"re losingtalent to FS1 they tried to keep,like Colin Cowherd and now Skip Bayless. IsESPN on the defensive?

Nolan:I would say thats probably because they did it untouched for so long and unchallenged for so long. Thats never good for any industry, forone company to just be the one that does it. Itnever challenges them to grow, or change or be better. They can just do whatever they want. I think the introduction of FS1, and now that we have Jamie, whos given a vision to the network and taking it in a direction, yes, I can see why the big network is like, "Wait, this was our turf."Theyre now sort of reacting to that and to us. Ultimately, Id say for sports fans, its good. It creates a give and take and a push-pull to make all the networks better, to rise to a standard.

MORE: Nolan parodies Beyonce"s "Lemonade"

SN: What was it like to win your firstEmmy? "Garbage Time"was also nominated for Outstanding Weekly Studio Show againstsome heavy hitters.

Nolan: Crazy. It was insane. There was no way to describe the shock. I just put it down to come down here. Ive had it with me every day, all day. It was crazy. When we found out wewere nominated, we all freaked out. There were tears. The one we knew we weren"tgoing to win was Outstanding Studio Show Weekly.Just to look at the names on that list: ESPN"s "College Gameday,""Inside the NBA on TNT," "Football Night in America," our show and "Fox NFL Sunday."You would never mention our show in the same breath as any of those shows. To be in that same category was like, "Oh, my G*d, people know we exist."Then to be at the Emmys, and have them call our name, it was crazy. If we ever win another one, fingers crossed, I will have a speech written that time instead of what Idid last time, which was to say nothing. Nothing will ever feel like that. That was really, really cool. No one expected that. Even Jamie, before we went out there, was like: "Remember, just being nominated is really cool."Then we won. It was like, "What?"

SN: Do you worry that you go too farsometimes?

Nolan: Sometimes, but not for the stuff that people say I"m fearless for. People sometimes give me too much credit. It"snot a crazy stance to say domestic violence is bad and lets stop doing that and enabling athletes to do that and someone should be in charge. Theres times I"ve said things that Iprobably shouldn"t say, but again, most of it is making a dumb joke at the expense of somebody thenetwork is a partner with and has the rights to their footage.

But Fox has been really good at, Idont want to say protecting me, but making sure if Isay something, they see it before it airs. And they"re like, "Uh, Ireally dont think you should push that button."Ifit"s something Iwant to take a stance on, I"llfight back 100 percent, butthere are other times where you just have to recognize that when youre in it, it helps to have a person take a step back and be like, "This really is not the battle to choose. You should save your good graces for a different battle later on."

SN: What"s it likeworking with Horowitz? Hesparked a lot of debateby telling us he wants to build FS1 around"Opinionists" like Whitlock, Bayless and Cowherd.

Nolan: I dont see much of him. Hes in LA and Im out here. When I do see him, it"s usually to eat dinner and talk about the show. Hes been great. Hes notoriously good with talent. Hes a nice, personable guy. Hes funny and fun. We did one episode from LA last season. He came in and gave a segment idea. He likes to produce which I think is cool as opposed to just being a suit and grumbling around. Lots of basketball analogies. Thats what hes like as a person. Basketball analogies is all you need to know about Jamie Horowitz.

SN: "Garbage Time"is now in its third season.Do you still write most of your own material?

Nolan:Yes, for the most part. Anything opinion-based, usually like the A-block of our TV show, is an opinion-based rant, for lack of a better term. That is always me, because I cant have a man write my feelings on something. It would come through as a little obvious.

MORE: Erin Andrews envies Nolan"s ability to have no filter

SN: Is "Garbage Time"sports, comedy, or both?

Nolan: Theway Idescribe our show is it"sme as a person,in show form. There are times when it"s funny. Some interviews, we get some really interesting stuff out of people. Theres times when it"s just goofy funny. Theres times where it"s smart funny. Theres times when it"s not funny at all, because we tried something and it doesnt work. There are times when Iuse my platform. Ifeel the responsibility to use it to talk about issues that arent funny at all and will never be funny, like the NFL anddomestic violence. It"ssports and entertainment and fun. But as a women in sports, Iknow Ihave a responsibility to use my platform in a way that if someone should be speaking up, and it doesnt seem that enough people are, Iwill.

SN: Who were some of your most surprising guests?

Nolan: Iremember there was a weekend in Season 1, we had a guest cancel at the last minute, we were like, "What are we going to to do? We have to make a show."Wecalled in a favor. MLB Network said Harold Reynoldsis in town. We were like, "OK, thatwill be really nice of them."And he ended up being one ofour bestguests, because we just had fun and did some silly stuff. Alonzo Mourning was one of our first guests. He was great. So nice. So tall. Butso willing to play along and do silly stuff.

Kevin Durant, we got to do some really weird stuff, too,and got him out of his comfort zone. Richard Sherman we did this season. We played video games together. Such a funny guy. He was playing to camera. He"d say one thing and turn to camera and wink. The instincts he has withbeing on TV oh, my G*d. He going to be insanely good at that when he"s done with football, which Idon"tthink is anytime soon.

SN: Are athletes watchingthe show?

Nolan: Sometimes. You never know, because obviously theyre never going to look you in the eye and say, "I"ve never heard of this show before."Alsoa lot of time, their people, their PRteams, or agents, or whomever, will show them a clip on the way to an interview and say, "Just so you"reprepared, this is what they do on this show."Richard Shermandid say on his way out of the interview, "What is this show called? Because I think I"d like itbut I"ve never heard of it before." ...

Then there was Chase Elliott,the NASCARdriver. Once the interview was over, he was like, "Really great to meet you, big fan, love the show." I was like, "Wait, what?"I was soexcited to think youre a professional athleteand you know of our show and watch it, which is really cool. I justalways enter everything assuming no one has any idea of who we are or what we do.

SN: You"ve called Rob Ryan your "bae."Is he still your dream guest?

Nolan: At this point,weve built it up to be a huge thing, that whenwe have him on, we have to crush that segment. We can"t just be like, "Oh, hi, Rob,thanks for coming by, so tell me about your family."Ithas to be this big idea thats the be-all, end-all of everything, "cause then I"llobviously quit TVand do something else with my life, become a nun or something. Were so psyched about it. Weknow if the call ever comes through, or if he ever answers the 900 phone calls we"ve put in to him, that we have to crush it. We have to come up with some crazy idea. Weve tossed around tons of ideas. Ifwe book Rob Ryan, what do we do? You knowhow newspapers have obituaries written for people who might die?We have like 18 segments written if we ever get Rob Ryan to come on this show. Theyre just waiting in a folder somewhere, a Google drive. Just in case. Boom, he"s here. Let"srunwith it.

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SN: So what"s it like to suddenly be famous?

Nolan: Iwouldn"tcall myself famous, but,yes, it"s weird. It"sdifferent. ...So I"llbe on the train. You know when you feel someone looking at you. Youre like, "Uh-oh,do i have boogers? No, no boogers coming out of my nose. Ismy hair doing something crazy? No. Is it my shirt or my pants? What is that guy looking at?"Then theyll come up to you, or sometimes they dont, and theyll say, "Are you Katie Nolan?"And I"m like, "Oh, yes, I am."Meanwhile, theentire 20-minute train ride Im going, "What is wrong with me? Why is that guy staringat me like that?"so my brain still doesnt click to, "He recognizes me, Im famous."Istill think theyre looking at me because somethings wrong with me.

But it"s been really cool when people do approach me. Ithink the perception of my fans, given the way they are on Twitter sometimes, or the way the Internet can be, is theyre crazy men who say sexually charged things. But any time I"ve been out at a bar, and someone has come up to me, the first thing they say, "I don"tmean to interrupt, and I"ll be really quick," which is very polite, because I"m usually like, "Oh, please interrupt, this is really cool for me." ... Noone has ever been like, "Can Ibuy you a beer?" Or, "What are you doing later?"Noone has ever been weird.

Ihave really cool, human fans. Ithink with the way the world is now,the majority of interaction with fans are on online,it"s really good and refreshing. It makesme very happy to interact with fans in real life andbe reminded that there are decent people who like thisshow. Alot of people will say, "I"ve been watching you since the Guyism internet videos."Ifeel like Ishould pay the person. "Ionly have $5 in my pocket, but thank you."

SN: But there"s also a downside to sports celebrity, especially for women, no?

Nolan: Yes, women get harassed online, especially women in sports, or women in any male-dominated field that caters mostly to male fans. ...Thegoal of my show is to show people that sports TVcan cater to both male and female fans, tosort of broaden the fan base,so it isnt just men that were focusing on and catering to. The other thing Iwould say is a lot of people in sports get harassed online. People expect women to be the victim: "Oh, no, we should take care of her. Look at the mean things people are saying about her,"but I"ve seen some very mean things tweeted at Joe Buck or Skip Bayless or Stephen A. Smith.They get their fair share, but nobody feels they have to protect those people,because theyre men.

SN: Howdo you deal with it personally?

Nolan: I"velearned to read less of my at replies on Twitter, orjust take them with a grain of salt. Know that if youre ever doing anything that puts you in the public eye, people will comment on it, whether good or bad. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. It"sthe actual attacks on you as a woman, as opposed to the quality of your show. Believe me, Iknow our show is not perfect. We have a lot to work out, andI"m actually interested in getting feedback from people on the internet about what they like, whats working and what doesnt work, butwhen it"s just things like, "You"resetting women back,"or, "Womendont know sports,"thats when it"s like, "What year is it? How are those people still around and speaking? Just keep your weird opinions to yourself."

SN:I can see Skip and Stephen A. generating that kind of negative reaction, but why does Joe Buckirk people so much?

Nolan: I know. So much grief. Ive talked to him about it, too. I asked him, "How do you handle that?" Somebody tweeted at him, "Joe Buck, youre so biased for the Red Sox,"then somebody else tweeted after him he was so clearly biased for the Yankees. He replied to both of them and said, "Ha, Im not even calling that game."Itwasnt even him. People just hear a voice and are like, ""Oh, that Joe Buck."First of all, hes not biased for that team. Second of all, he cant be biased for both teams. Third of all, thats not even me.

WATCH: Joe Buck"s classic Super Bowl-week skit in NYC

SN: So what is it with Buck? Too smooth, too good-looking?

Nolan:Yes, thats definitely it. Write that down and publish it so that Joe Buck knows I said he"s too smooth and good-looking. Sports fans are passionate, which is the best thing about them and the worst thing about them. When we were developing a sports comedy show, Ispent months studying sports comedy shows. People have tried to do this but it usually fails. Sometimes it"s because it"s asports comedy show on a comedy network. Sometimes because it"s a sports comedy show that isnt funny enough because it"s on a sports network.

So Iwatched a lot of it and tried to study what it was that makes that harder to do than, say, political comedy. One of the things I found is that when it comes to politics, youve got essentially two audiences: Republicans and Democrats. Just pick one and cater to them. Youd be hard-pressed to find a Republican way on the right who loves Jon Stewart or who praises (Stephen) Colbert unless they dont get the joke. But with sports, theres 32 football teams. Youll have this Dolphins fanwhen you make fun of the Patriots. Youll keep them when you make fun of the Bills. But the second you make funof the Dolphins, the really passionate ones are like, "I"m out on you. I"m done. ...

I can"t tell you how many tweets Ive gotten that are like, "I liked you, until this."Even Patriots fans. I"m a huge Patriots fan. We did a (Tom Brady) joke at the beginning of the season where Iwas like, "Tom, just sit the four games, enough with Deflategate."Itwas a joke. People were like, "How dare you bail on Tom? Why should he admit he did it, he didnt do anything wrong, its his legacy, etc."Iwas like, "Imone of you. It"s just a joke about how exasperated Iam with learningabout the 2nd Circuit legal system. Idont want to learn about the courts. Iwant to talk about football."

SN: Why do fans get so heated about announcers calling the games?

Nolan: Sports fans are so passionate, so Ithink when a Red Sox fan thinks that a guy calling the game is being biased, it"s like the worst thing that can ever happen. Somehow, something goes off in their brains where their first thought is, "Im going to tweet at him." . . .If Ihad to pick an analyst or color commentator whos universally loved,its hard to find. Everybody hates everybody. The other thing that people on Twitter dont realize, or maybe they do and that"s what makes it even more awful, is bosses of networks are probably looking on Twitter andseeing what the general narrative about a person is.

Joe Buckhas a huge portfolio of success to fall back on. Idon"t think a tweet is going to get him fired. But it"s hard to break into the business when the internet is so willing to say, "Ah, this person sucks. Next."Because it"s sports and it"s fun and it"s what a lot of us enjoy in our free time, they dont realize how hard most jobs in sports are. Calling a game? Ican"t even imagine doing that.Imean, you have to talk the whole time. It hasto be entertaining. You have to know when to lay outand know when to give a stat, andthat stat better be exactly right.

SN: So you"rewilling to move to Los Angeles if your show goes five days a week?

Nolan: I"ve always been back and forth, Boston-New York, my whole life, so moving out there is exciting. Let me try something completely different. But it"s also scary. Trying something completely different and trying this huge lift by taking the show to four or five nightsa week it would be a lot, but Iguess you have to try it.

SN: Are you interested in landing some corporate sponsorshipsand ad campaigns?

Nolan: I currently do a web series for United Airlines. I did one for DraftKings, too. My only criteria for that sort of stuff is it has to be me. I don"t want to be like, "Hi, I"m Katie Nolan for Prilosec OTC."Means nothing to me. And also at the same time, Im not that famous, so nobodys really coming to me and saying, "Ooh, endorse this," because no one cares.

So the United campaign that Im doing right now is online videos that I also think air in-flight, but theyre not on TV, theyre not commercials. Theyre like five-minute videos of behind-the-scenesstuff that customers might want to know about airlines, like what flight attendants do when theyre not giving you a drink. It"svery much my voice and me. That kind of of stuff is more me getting reps,practicing and finding different ways thatI can use my small arsenal of talents.

For DraftKings Iplayed mini-golf with Gronk. I played "Truth or Dare"with him while we played mini-golf. No one is going to say no to that opportunity. It"s not something Ifocus (on) or even tell my agent, "Go get me more ad opportunities,"just if something comes along and they want to do it in your voice, or if someone says, "Heres a ridiculous amount of money and all you have to do is make an Instagram post."Iwas broke four years ago, so, yes, Iwould do an Instagram that says hashtag sponsor on it. Why wouldnt Ido that? ...

Also, Im not a journalist, so Idon"tthink anybody will be like, "Oh, no, your integrity is completely ruined."I dont have any integrity anyway. Im just out here to have fun and enjoy sports, soif someone (is) like, "Heres $5,000to take a picture,"who would be like, "Nope, sorry, that would really interfere with my job as a journalist?" If youre going to be dumb enough to pay me to post a picture, then Im going to be dumb enough to take your money.

Source: http://www.sportingnews.com/other-sports/news/katie-nolan-q-a-garbage-time-with-katie-nolan-fox-sports-1-bill-simmons-joe-buck/w1vc838huiqa1jmt58a25lgj7

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