ESPN makes final decision on college football voice Chris Fowler
The voice of college football on ESPN will be staying with the network going forward, as veteran commentator Chris Fowler signed a multi-year deal to stay on with the Worldwide Leader in Sports, the company announced.
By staying with the network, Fowler will continue his role calling college football games, including the national championship, and will also be featured as the No. 2 play-by-play man for Monday Night Football, where he will call the Week 2 and Week 3 games this coming season.
"Fowler's new agreement with ESPN further solidifies one of ESPN's longest-tenured voices with the company, who has progressed over a quarter century to be one of the most respected hosts and play-by-play commentators in television," ESPN said, adding that Fowler will retain his usual college football broadcast obligations.
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According to reports this offseason, Fowler was asking for a raise from the worldwide leader as the main play-by-play announcer for college football and tennis, but was unable to get the price he was hoping for, The New York Post revealed.
Fowler recently completed his existing 10-year contract that paid $30 million in total and was looking for a raise, but ESPN only awarded him a small increase, according to that report, while announcing some major layoffs from the network.
Disney, the company that owns ESPN, planned to cut around 7,000 jobs from around the company overall and the sports network has been looking to get rid of mid-range personnel earning anywhere from $2 million to $5 million per year. Among those cuts were two College GameDay faces, including David Pollack and Gene Wojciechowski.
But big names like Fowler — and the likes of Monday Night Football announcer Joe Buck, longtime analyst and commentator Stephen A. Smith, and broadcaster Scott Van Pelt, among other famous faces — are safe from the widespread cuts.
The company is looking to cut out its costs among those people in the middle of the ranks and more cuts are set to come for many behind the scenes workers.
Among those cuts was Mike Soltys, the second-longest tenured employee in ESPN history, an executive who spent 43 years at the company, and Lee Fitting, a 26-year veteran and the former 6-time Emmy Award winner for his work on College GameDay.
Fowler has been with ESPN since 1986 and was the primary host of its flagship College GameDay show from 1990 to 2014, when he succeeded Brent Musburger as the play-by-play voice for Saturday Night Football alongside Kirk Herbstreit.
Fowler is also the voice of the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
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