Big Noon Kickoff is going to look very different this weekend. The entire cast of FOX’s college football pregame show will miss this week’s episode due to COVID-19. The network would not say if anyone had been infected or if it was a precaution out of all being exposed.
Urban Meyer, Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, Brady Quinn, and host Rob Stone will be replaced by Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Emmanuel Acho, and host Charissa Thompson. According to Andrew Marchand of The New York Post, the network won’t consider having the regular cast host the show from remote locations.
There’s never a good time for a studio to have a COVID-19 scare, but this is particularly poor timing for FOX. The PAC-12, one of the conference’s the network has built its college football presence around, is finally starting play this weekend for the 2019 season. Big Noon Kickoff this week leads into kickoff between USC and Arizona State.
