As expected, Kevin Burkhardt is the new lead NFL play-by-play voice for Fox Sports.
According to the New York Post‘s Andrew Marchand, Burkhardt will replace Joe Buck as Fox’s top play-by-play announcer. Though there was some speculation that the network may seek a flashier outside hire for the role, such as Al Michaels, Fox Sports executives always seemed to prefer an internal move. And once Michaels agreed to a deal with Amazon, Burkhardt’s path was clear.
Still to be determined is who Burkhardt’s broadcast partner will be. All signs point to Greg Olsen, who teamed with Burkhardt last season and has long been viewed as a rising star analyst, also moving up from the No. 2 to the No. 1 crew.
Fox has not yet made an official announcement regarding Burkhardt, likely waiting until his partner is also officially settled upon. Then, as ESPN did with Buck and Troy Aikman and Amazon did with Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit, the network will announce its new No. 1 NFL broadcast team.
Burkhardt and his analyst partner will be on the call for two of the next three Super Bowl telecasts, which Fox has the rights to. That’s quite a showcase for a broadcasting duo which has plenty of experience, but might not be as familiar with the larger mainstream audiences that watch the Super Bowl — or even the 4:25 p.m. ET game each NFL Sunday.
Also yet to be determined is whether or not Burkhardt will maintain his role hosting Fox’s postseason Major League Baseball coverage. He has hosted the network’s pre- and post-game studio show since 2015, with analysts Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, and Frank Thomas.
Buck called the World Series for Fox along with his NFL obligations. In October, that sometimes required him to be in the baseball booth rather than with Aikman on an NFL broadcast. The Fox MLB postseason show has been popular with fans and critics, so the network may not want to break that up. But there will likely be scheduling conflicts some weeks.
Speaking of Buck, he had kind words for his successor on Twitter.
For Burkhardt, getting the No. 1 Fox NFL gig is the culmination of a long career that began calling minor league baseball and working at WGHT in New Jersey, followed by a stint at WCBS. That led to a job at WFAN, where he eventually became the station’s New York Jets reporter.
From there, Burkhardt moved to SNY, where he was a popular sideline reporter and studio host for New York Mets broadcasts. And that was the springboard for Burkhardt to Fox, where he’s now one of the network’s prominent sports voices.
Ian Casselberry is a sports media columnist for BSM. He has previously written and edited for Awful Announcing, The Comeback, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation. You can find him on Twitter @iancass or reach him by email at iancass@gmail.com.
