Fox plans to take its World Cup studio show to games, college football-style
“This is, just as a starting point, the biggest production Fox Sports has ever put on in our company’s history,” lead soccer producer Zac Kenworthy said of the 104-game schedule.
NEW YORK — At a World Cup, the passion of fans is as much of a story as the play on the field. And in American sports, the way to show that has long been well-established: take the studio on the road.
Fox is used to that, with its Big Noon Kickoff college football show that followed in the footsteps of ESPN’s standard-setting College Gameday. So it only makes sense that Fox will bring the spectacle to the World Cup this summer.
“This is, just as a starting point, the biggest production Fox Sports has ever put on in our company’s history,” vice president of production Zac Kenworthy said at a media event on Thursday. “There’s nothing to match it, that’s full stop. And these three U.S. [game] days in the group stage, we know are going to be huge.”
The exact number of games where Fox will have a road show isn’t set yet, but all the U.S. team’s games will certainly be on the list. On those days, the network will effectively have two studios: one at headquarters in Los Angeles, and one at the big game.
“There’s a real concerted effort on our part to be as present as possible for the marquee matches,” said Kenworthy, who has been involved with Fox’s soccer coverage for many years. “Of course, I know this is a World Cup with 48 teams — there are plenty of big matches. But when you look at the calendar, the real marquee games and where it makes sense for us to be, also taking travel into account, the goal is to be as mobile as we can.”
Some of the logistics with having a studio show for fans are obviously different at a World Cup than a Penn State football game. There’s a world’s worth of TV networks on site instead of just one, and there are major security perimeters around the stadiums.
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But everyone at Fox knows what the concept is supposed to be, and plenty of viewers at home do too. So as Kenworthy put it, “Working within those confines, that’s the goal, and hopefully we can get there.”
Expect the cast at U.S. games to include veteran host Rob Stone, who will work his 13th career men’s or women’s World Cup across his years at ESPN and Fox; panelists Clint Dempsey, Alexi Lalas, Carli Lloyd, and Landon Donovan if he’s not on the road calling another game; John Strong and Stu Holden in the booth; and reporters Jenny Taft and Tom Rinaldi.
They’re all part of a rotating cast that totals four studio hosts, 11 studio analysts, nine game-calling crews, six reporters, and two rules experts. Headliners include host Rebecca Lowe, on loan from NBC for the summer; and Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović, and Javier “Chicharito” Hernández among the studio pundits.
Five of the crew have familiar ties to Philadelphia: Delran’s Lloyd, former Union play-by-play voice JP Dellacamera, ex-midfielder Maurice Edu, and longtime local residents Danny Higginbotham (who also used to work Union games) and Lori Lindsey.
» READ MORE: This former high school soccer player could be a World Cup breakout star in Philadelphia
All 104 games this summer will have Fox’s announcers in the stadium. Fans will appreciate that. At many past World Cups, the network has had some crews working off monitors.
“This is a heck of an undertaking: 16 cities, a massive continent,” Kenworthy said. “No extra steps, it’s just you’ve got to get ahead of it, and we did. And we’ve been really smart in making sure that we can get from point A to point B and also keep people fresh, and that’s part of the reason why we have such a big talent roster.”
This is the last World Cup of Fox’s current FIFA rights deal, which began with the 2015 women’s World Cup. The next two women’s tournaments — 2027 in Brazil and 2031 in the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, and Jamaica — have already been bought by Netflix, but the rights for the 2030 men’s World Cup aren’t on the market yet.
Whether Fox bids for the next round is above Kenworthy’s pay grade. But what he can control is the work he’s been doing ever since the rights for this summer’s tournament were awarded to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico eight years ago.
» READ MORE: FIFA promised a $1 million gift to Philly to spur ‘legacy’ initiatives. The city is still waiting.
“I was producing the preview show in 2018 in Moscow on the eve of the start of that World Cup when we found out 2026 was going to be in North America,” he said. “ The conversation started right away. I know you can get down to to brass tacks and hard planning and whatnot, which has been over the course of a few years, but the thought processes were already going into place in 2018 for this moment.”
Nine nations will compete in five group stage matches this summer, plus two more in a knockout game on July 4. Here’s what you need to know about those countries — and what those fans need to know about Philly. Click here for more.
