Rose’s bowl performance has been a bonus for Fox

Fox has all the BCS bowl games except the Rose. But the network does have a Rose it is pretty excited about.

That would be Chris Rose, the host of Fox’s BCS coverage.

“A new star has arrived. We knew how good he is. Now America is finding out,” gushed Fox Sports chairman David Hill.

That overt enthusiasm aside, Rose has done well so far.

On Fox’s first three BCS bowls, he worked alongside Jimmy Johnson and guest commentators Barry Switzer (Fiesta Bowl), Dave Wannstedt (Orange) and Tim Brown (Sugar).

For Monday night’s championship game between Ohio State and Florida, Rose and Johnson will be joined by two guest commentators -- Eddie George, a former Buckeye, and Emmitt Smith, a former Gator.

That’s a star-studded lineup that Rose is working with. Not bad for a 35-year-old who started his broadcasting career as a camera operator for a Cincinnati television station.

But it’s not as if Rose, a graduate of Miami of Ohio, came out of nowhere. He was originally hired in 1999 by FSN, Fox’s cable network, as an anchor for its “National Sports Report.” He became the host of “Best Damn Sports Show Period” in 2001.

How he got that job is a case of right place, right time.

“I remember the night well,” Rose said. “It was a Tuesday night, my wife’s birthday, July 17, and we had gone to a movie. I got a page from [former FSN producer] Steve Tello. After the movie, I called him and he told me they needed me to come in on that Thursday and Friday and help them with a new show.”

The name “Best Damn Sports Show Period” was set. So was the cast, which included Tom Arnold, John Kruk, Reggie Theus, D’Marco Farr and Lisa Guerrero.

But a host had yet to be named. Rose was to sit in and act like the host for a dress rehearsal. The first show was due to air the following Monday at midnight. It was what the network called a “soft launch,” without much fanfare.

“We were still tinkering with the show and deliberating about a host,” Hill said. “We had three guys in mind.”

Then Rose, in his fill-in role, impressed Hill and executive producer George Greenberg.

“We looked at each other and said, ‘We’ve just found our host,’ ” Hill said.

And Hill said he and Fox Sports President Ed Goren had no qualms about selecting Rose as the host of the network’s BCS coverage.

“We wanted it to be distinctive from our NFL show, and Chris was the obvious choice,” Hill said. “And we picked Jimmy to work with him because of his college background.”

Johnson coached at Oklahoma State and Miami before moving on to the Dallas Cowboys in 1989.

The national ratings for Fox’s first two BCS bowl games, relatively speaking, were not good. The Fiesta got an 8.4 and the Orange a 7.0, compared to a 13.9 for the Rose Bowl on ABC. But Fox spokesman Dan Bell pointed out that the Sugar Bowl did a 9.8, which was up 4% over the rating for last year’s West Virginia-Georgia game and allowed Fox to win the night by a considerable margin.

Although Fox’s BCS bowl telecasts have not been error-free, Hill said that overall he has been pleased with the coverage, particularly because this was the network’s first big-time venture into college football.

Fox couldn’t have asked for a better game than Boise State’s 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta. The same crew that announced that game, play-by-play announcer Thom Brennaman and commentators Charles Davis and Barry Alvarez, will be working Monday night’s title game.

Meanwhile, Pat Haden and Terry Donahue, who worked with play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgersian on Tuesday night’s Orange Bowl, showed a Trojan and a Bruin can make a good pairing. And Hill said Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long, working with Kenny Albert on Wednesday night’s Sugar Bowl, jelled as well as they do on Fox’s NFL pregame show.

NFL playoff connection

NBC has two NFL playoff games Saturday, with CBS and Fox having one each on Sunday.

NBC has hired Tennessee Titans Coach Jeff Fisher to serve as a guest commentator for its studio show Saturday.

Fisher was an easy choice for David Neal, NBC Sports’ executive producer. He has known Fisher since their days together at Woodland Hills Taft High. Neal, 50, was a senior when Fisher was a sophomore. Both also attended USC.

Neal describes himself as a “marginal” high school football player, but the coach at Taft, Hal Lambert, asked him to serve as a volunteer assistant coach when he was a sophomore at USC. Neal was assigned to handle the receivers. Fisher, a senior at Taft, was the team’s star receiver. He also played defensive back, the position he played at USC and with the Chicago Bears.

But Neal didn’t pick Fisher to work as a guest commentator because of their friendship. He said he picked him because of his football knowledge and communication skills.

“He doesn’t speak in coaching cliches,” Neal said. “He speaks conversationally. I know he is going to remain in coaching for a long time, but down the road he has a future in broadcasting.”

larry.stewart@latimes.com