re: Men In Blazers Moving From ESPN to NBC

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The duo will have a weekly Monday night TV show and will also contribute radio, TV and written pieces. ESPN FC The popular soccer commentating duo known as the Men in Blazers is leaving ESPN for NBC Sports, becoming the latest in a series of recent bets on soccer's rising popularity in the U.S. Starting shortly after the 2014-2015 Premier League season begins later this month, the Men in Blazers, as television producer Michael Davies and writer Roger Bennett are known, will have a weekly Monday night show on NBC Sports and will contribute radio, TV and written pieces for the network's various outlets. The terms of their contract weren't disclosed, and the show doesn't yet have a name. Messrs. Davies and Bennett, who have hosted a podcast about soccer for several years, were already popular among dedicated U.S. soccer fans before they began making television appearances on ESPN during the World Cup in Brazil. They have a shared lingo with fans—whom they call GFOPs, or Great Friends of the Podcast—and have hosted raucous live shows across the U.S. But in Rio de Janeiro, where the pair made nightly appearances on ESPN from a tiny closet, their humorous commentary on the games attracted a new wave of fans. Recently, their comedy album made the top 10 on iTunes, and a show in Portland was live-streamed online by more than 100,000 people. During the show Mr. Bennett, 43 years old, said, "Not since Lewis and Clark have two men been so excited to be here." The Men in Blazers now have more than 78,000 Twitter followers and are regularly recognized on the street by fans. The duo will be expected to bring those fans with them to NBC, which in 2012 spent $80 million to broadcast Premier League games. NBC, a unit of Comcast Corp. CMCSA +1.56% , has invested heavily to promote its Premier League coverage, and it pursued Messrs. Davies and Bennett for more than a year, according to Ron Wechsler, the vice president of original programming at NBC Sports Group. "These guys are intelligent, hardworking and have a great humor and wit," Mr. Wechsler said. "We saw how they showcased their talent in Rio at a very significant event, and that's how we plan to showcase their talent. We want to be true to the brand that they've established." Last year a record 31.5 million Americans tuned in to Premier League coverage on NBC—more than double the number of viewers who watched the previous season on other networks, according to Nielsen Co.—and the Men in Blazers will mostly be providing commentary on that league. "All of our focus, all of our commitment, all of our attention is focused solely on our relationship with the Premier League," said Jon Miller, the president of programming for NBC and NBCSN. The Men in Blazers "are not going to stop talking about Major League Soccer, but the focus of their relationship with us will be the Premier League." That may disappoint U.S. fans, who have come to enjoy the Men in Blazers' unique take on soccer in America, but Messrs. Davies and Bennett say they'll continue to talk about everything of interest in the soccer world, including the MLS. "We're incredibly surprised that they wanted us," Mr. Davies, 48, said. "I'm sure [the show] will change, but they seem to like it exactly how it is, which is both shocking and thrilling." Both men are keenly aware that the rise in their popularity coincided with the overall rise in popularity of soccer in the U.S., and they put in long hours. The pair did two radio shows every week and a weekly podcast every week for four years before this year's World Cup, according to Mr. Davies. "We always wanted to go on television, but we had a real sense that the World Cup was going to be our moment," Mr. Davies said. At NBC the pair will be looking to maintain their chemistry and unique brand of humor. That includes building a replica set of the closet from which they broadcast while in Brazil. "At the World Cup we learned about Americans' sensibility," Mr. Bennett said. "That you can have a beautiful studio and a panoply of talent, but at the end of the day two gentlemen stuck in a closet for extended periods of time with only a modicum of water and tiny bananas—Americans want to partake in that."

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Year-Round EPL and MLS Coverage vs. Sporadic USMNT Coverage in a Few Years

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