FOX has gone forward with their long-anticipated bump of Erin Andrews to the top NFL team.
Andrews will replace Pam Oliver and join Joe Buck and Troy Aikman for the network’s top NFL games, SI.com reported. Oliver will go down to the No. 2 team of Kevin Burkhardt and John Lynch, but even that was no guarantee.
Oliver, 53, met with Fox Sports president Eric Shanks and executive vice president John Entz in April, and they told her she would be taken off the sidelines after 19 seasons in that role.
“To go from the lead crew to no crew was a little shocking,” Oliver told the website.
“I said I wanted to do a 20th year [on the sidelines]. I expressed to them that I was not done and had something to offer. Again, I think it was predetermined coming in. Not at that meeting, but two years ago it was determined that no matter what I did or did not do, a change would be made for this year.”
Oliver was able to convince the executives to let her work that 20th season before perhaps moving on to a new role with the network.
“The emphasis at the meeting was always placed on how they saw what was next for me versus what I saw would be next for me,” Oliver said. “I felt I was not done. I still felt I had more to offer with sideline reporting. I think that took them by surprise a little bit. So we focused on what the next step was and that’s how we ended up where we now. And I am excited about that.”
Andrews, 36, left ESPN for FOX in 2012 and was made the host of the network’s college football pregame show. She also works FOX’s MLB broadcasts has become one of the faces of its sports coverage.
“I think in the last five years we have made a lot of changes with the NFL crews,” Shanks said. “We have made changes to keep our coverage across the board fresh, including the addition of Burkhardt and Lynch -– which has been one of the more exciting pairings we have put together. This is kind of the next move in that evolution.”