Olbermann, ESPN’s Myers Join Fox

Fox Sports Net’s “Fox Sports News,” in its battle to catch ESPN’s “SportsCenter” in the ratings war, has gone to the heavy artillery, hiring Keith Olbermann and Chris Myers as anchors.

“For sports, this is like hiring [Peter] Jennings and [Ted] Koppel,” gushed one Fox Sports Net executive Monday.

The hirings will be announced this week.

Olbermann, who spent 5 1/2 years at ESPN and a year in exile away from sports at MSNBC, will return to Los Angeles as anchor for “Fox Sports News” sometime in mid-December. He had stints at Channel 5 and Channel 2 before heading off for ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Conn., in 1992.

Myers, a 10-year ESPN veteran, in recent years has served as host of “Up Close.”

Olbermann and Myers will not be paired, at least initially. A tentative plan has Olbermann paired with Kevin Frazier and Myers with Van Earl Wright.

Olbermann also figures to be part of the major Fox network’s baseball coverage and Myers will replace Joe Buck as the host of Fox Sports Net’s “Goin’ Deep” magazine show. Myers is also expected to have a role with the major network.

“Fox Sports News,” which took dead aim at “SportsCenter” when it launched Nov. 1, 1996, has been making steady progress.

“SportsCenter” still leads, averaging a 1.2 rating in October, compared to a 0.9 for “Fox Sports News” during the third quarter of this year. But “Fox Sports News” has shown more growth over the last year, a ratings increase of 62% for its main two-hour block, compared to a 51% increase for the main edition of “SportsCenter,” and much of ESPN’s growth can be attributed to the NFL. Ratings for “SportsCenter” and ESPN in general were down during the first quarter of this year.

Olbermann’s leaving MSNBC is no surprise. He has voiced his displeasure with the network on a number of occasions. His main job at MSNBC has been serving as host of “The Big Show With Keith Olbermann.” He also has been the host of “White House in Crisis.”

He once “retitled” that show, “The White House Isn’t in Crisis but We’ll Keep Calling It That Because There’s a Graphic.”

And in June, delivering a speech at Cornell, his alma mater, he said, “I’m having the dry heaves in the bathroom because my moral sensor is going off. I can’t even hear it [because] I’m so seduced by ratings.”

But Olbermann has also voiced his disdain for sports and sports reporting. About the possibility of returning to Los Angeles to do a sports news show for Fox, he once said, “Been there, done that.” He told Playboy in June, “I’ve stopped being a sports fan.”

Of ESPN, he said, “I served my time, and I’ve only recently been able to admit this: For 5 1/2 years I wondered if it was me or if it was them. Was I a pain in the . . . ? Is my hatred of authority that great? Now I can say with absolute conviction, it was them.

“There was such a corporate ‘All we have are the rules’ mentality at ESPN that I feel like I’ve been released from prison.”

As for Myers’ hiring by Fox, it was mainly a matter of money.

Sources say Fox’s offer was double what Myers was making at ESPN.

“We negotiated with Chris in good faith and couldn’t come to terms,” ESPN spokesman Chris LaPlaca said. “We have a lot of respect for Chris and wish him well.”

Myers, currently on vacation, figures to ask out of the rest of his ESPN contract, which expires at the end of the year.