FOX Betting on Sports for Saturday Nights

The FOX is doing its own Extreme Makeover with sports night Saturday night.

Starting this Saturday, April 14, 2012, FOX has scheduled 27 sporting events over the next 35 weeks (through December 8, 2012). April 21st will the very last AMERICA'S MOST WANTED special to air on FOX. That currently leaves six weeks, in the middle of the summer (July 14-Aug. 25), that FOX has available for COPS to air.

The events FOX will air on Saturday nights are three NASCAR events, (currently) three UFC bouts, eight MLB regional games telecasts, then in the fall 12 regular season PAC-12 football games, plus the Big Ten Championship game and a World Series game.


FOX is not cancelling COPS, but will reduce its order for original episodes. But, once September is here, the earliest we would see COPS hit the airwaves would be December 15, 2012.

Personally, this is the right thing to do. I have said for many seasons that one of the major networks needed to commit to a full time primetime sports night on either Fridays or Saturdays. This looks to be the first step for FOX to fill that void, while generating viewers on a usual dead TV night.

FOX Saturday Night Schedule, through December 8th:

Date	Event
04/14/12	NASCAR (Texas)
04/21/12	AMERICA'S MOST WANTED
04/28/12	NASCAR (Richmond)
05/05/12	UFC
05/12/12	NASCAR (Darlington)
05/19/12	MLB Games
05/26/12	MLB Games
06/02/12	MLB Games
06/09/12	MLB Games
06/16/12	MLB Games
06/23/12	MLB Games
06/30/12	MLB Games
07/07/12	MLB Games
07/14/12
07/21/12
07/28/12
08/04/12	UFC
08/11/12
08/18/12
08/25/12
09/01/12	Pac-12 Football
09/08/12	Pac-12 Football
09/15/12	Pac-12 Football
09/22/12	Pac-12 Football
09/29/12	Pac-12 Football
10/06/12	Pac-12 Football
10/13/12	Pac-12 Football
10/20/12	Pac-12 Football
10/27/12	World Series
11/03/12	Pac-12 Football
11/10/12	Pac-12 Football
11/17/12	Pac-12 Football
11/24/12	Pac-12 Football
12/01/12	Big Ten Championship
12/08/12	UFC