FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd has been a staple of FS1’s programming for a decade, but he has seen plenty of other programs come and go around his show in that stretch.
The show with the most recent struggles on FS1 is Wake Up Barstool, produced in Chicago by Barstool Sports. Wake Up Barstool airs every weekday from 8-10am ET, while re-airing from 10am-Noon ET on the network.
No one is waking up for Barstool
It has been several weeks since Wake Up Barstool hit the air, and the results have been pretty lackluster to say the least. FS1’s newest morning show has struggled to attract more than 10,000 viewers per show. By comparison, Cowherd’s show The Herd, along with First Things First regularly attract 100,000 views per episode.
Since The Herd with Colin Cowherd airs from Noon-3pm ET, his show is directly affected by inheriting a poor lead-in audience from Wake Up Barstool. However, Cowherd doesn’t seem too concerned about Wake Up Barstool’s slow start.
Cowherd sounds off
Cowherd told Sports Media Watch that the Barstool crew is still learning TV, and finding their footing. “Barstool just started out, and I’m prepping when they’re on the air. I see what they look like, but Barstool’s made their bones on digital and podcasting, so now they’re transitioning to TV, and TV’s hard,” Cowherd said.
He added, “And also on television, it’s got to look the part, so TV, there’s a lot of elements to it. It’s, ‘Does it look big?’ For instance, [ESPN’s] Get Up looks big. I could turn the sound down on Get Up and the production quality, it looks big, so it takes a while to tweak all these shows. My look has been refined through the years, same with First Things First.”
One of the biggest issues facing Wake Up Barstool has been the show’s lack of a consistent cast. Although you will see in a typical week some of the network’s biggest names like Dave Portnoy, Big Cat, PFT Commenter, Brandon Walker and T-Bob Hrbert, you won’t see any of them every single day like you would on an average weekday TV show.
More Big Cat?
Cowherd has a solution for Barstool’s TV ratings struggles, and lack of a constant cast. The longtime FS1 host is suggesting that Big Cat should be more involved, “So Barstool is brand new, and they’ve already made some tweaks to it, and I think it’ll be fine. The more Big Cat’s on it, the better. He’s obviously a big personality.”
Although the TV numbers have left a lot to be desired, it is worth noting that the show has done solid in metrics outside of traditional ratings. Wake Up Barstool has already had several viral moments, and has landed many big name interviews such as Jon Gruden, Dan Hurley, Greg Olsen, Kyle Whittingham, among others.
