Matthew Berry to Host Daily Fantasy Football Series for ESPN
“The Fantasy Show” debuts next season digitally and on TV
May 12, 2017
Fantasy guru Matthew Berry has been tapped to host a new ESPN show.
The sports expert, frequent Stern Show guest, and current Emotional Friends Fantasy Football League member will anchor “The Fantasy Show,” a daily series dedicated to all things fantasy football. Set to kick off next season, the show will air Monday through Friday both digitally and on TV, according to reports.
“For so long, fantasy sports has been a great digital property for us,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN’s exec VP of production, in a statement given to Variety. “For the first time, we’re taking a franchise and really, truly making it integrated across platforms, clearly with the focus on the marathon.”
In addition to his “The Fantasy Show,” Berry will reportedly continue to be involved with ESPN’s other fantasy offerings, including daily podcasts, Sunday morning TV programming, and daily digital articles and fantasy advice columns. Berry, for his part, said he isn’t intimidated by the challenge of producing more content.
“If there’s news in the NFL, it affects fantasy football, and there’s always news in the NFL,” he said, according to Variety, adding. “I’ve been playing fantasy sports for over 30 years, and I have yet to run out of stuff to talk about … There’s a regular cadence to the season.”
Despite being a renowned fantasy football expert, Berry failed to make the playoffs last season in the Stern Show’s Emotional Friends Fantasy Football League. As fans may remember, the staff was on the fence about whether or not the league’s non-staffers—like Berry and actor Michael Rapaport—should be allowed to return for another season. After a heated debate and on-air vote, however, both celebrity superfans survived as league members with everyone but Jason Kaplan and Will Murray voting to let Berry stay.
Check out Matthew Berry’s most recent sit-down with Howard here.
“The Fantasy Show” debuts digitally on Aug. 1 before hitting ESPN2 on Aug. 14, just as ESPN’s family of networks is kicking off its second annual “Fantasy Football Marathon.”
