Joe Buck Talks to FanHouse About His New HBO Show, Announcing Career

Joe Buck has been announcing NFL games for FOX since 1994 and been the lead play-by-play MLB man since the network acquired the rights to broadcast baseball games for the 1996 season.

Monday night, Buck will break with his announcing past and become an emcee for the premier episode of his new talk show, Joe Buck Live on HBO (9PM ET/PT).

FanHouse caught up with Buck last week to talk about his new show and about his 15-year career announcing some of the most high-profile sporting events in the world. Read the interview after the jump.

FanHouse: So Joe, first start with telling us a little bit about the show, why you decided you wanted to do it and what the viewer experience is going to be?
Joe Buck: When Bob [Costas] left for the MLB Network in December, the people at HBO called me about filling the role that he had on the network with Costas Now and doing a live talk show, and I sort of jumped at the chance. You know, Bob is so good at what he does – he's the best – and he was so good on Costas Now that it was impossible to turn down the opportunity.

It's different to do a talk show, where you have to basically come up with the interesting television and keep things going just by opening your mouth. We're going to get into a bunch of different topics affecting the sports world and have a wide range of guests, not just athletes.

FH: Can you let us in on what the first show is going to be about? [Ed. Note: Buck later revealed that "retired" quarterback Brett Favre would be one of his guests.]
JB: Sure. We're going to look at the impact the Internet, social media, basically the information revolution has had on the sports world and how celebrity and fame affects athletes. We'll have a panel of guests to discuss it. We're gonna have David Wright on and a few other surprise guests.

You know nowadays everyone seems to have a camera phone or a blog – whether it's a personal one, or something like FanHouse – and there's a lot of pressure on sports stars to sort of behave a certain way because of the celebrity they have.

FH: Yeah. I'm even thinking of Stephen Strasburg, the kid the Nationals are about to draft [Ed. Note: It's the first day of the MLB Draft and I'm off to cover the Nats shortly, so the topic is fresh in my mind], he's basically a celebrity before even throwing a pitch as a professional.
JB: Yeah, that's just it. You look at a guy like him, and there's just so much information, and so much hype already. I think you really kind of nailed it.

So it's an interesting topic, something I think really affects athletes' lives that hasn't always. I'm excited to dig in.

FH: What about doing a show on HBO? They seem to really do sports in a different way than really anybody else, whether it's Real Sports or Costas Now – particularly the Buzz Bissinger vs. Will Leitch blowup comes to mind – it always seems to be really compelling TV.
JB: That was a huge reason I decided I wanted to do this. It's a big change from my day job and a big challenge, but you really get the chance to get in depth on a topic. You know, you look at any of their original programming – whether it's Real Sports or The Sopranos or whatever – all they really care about is great television. Of course, that means I have a lot to live up to, but it also means I get the freedom to take some chances.

FH: How different do you expect the challenge of doing a talk show to be compared to what you do every weekend in the announcing booth on FOX?
JB: You know, I have no idea, and I don't think I really will until I walk out on that stage [Monday night]. One of the things about announcing games is that there's always the action there to comment on, to basically fill the spaces. With the show, I'm going to have to basically entertain people by opening my mouth, and it's especially daunting because it's live. There's no doing a second take. I have to be perfect once the cameras start rolling. It's sort of terrifying, but also a real break from my day job on FOX, and that's exciting. I get to just be myself and hopefully people enjoy it.

FH: One last question about the show. Do you feel any pressure essentially filling Bob Costas' spot on the network?
JB: I'm not going into this thinking I have to fill his shoes. I'm just going to have to be myself. Again, Bob is so good at what he does, I couldn't possibly try and do what he did on Costas Now. I'm a different person with a different approach, and hopefully everyone will see that [Monday].

FH: OK, switching gears to a few sports-related questions, I was wondering what you think of the new World Series start times?
JB: It'd be hypocritical for me to sit here and pretend I don't understand why TV networks – why FOX – puts those games on when they do in primetime. It's to sell ads and make sure as much of the viewing country is home and able to watch the games, to get as big of a viewing audience as possible. It'd be silly of me, as someone in the business, to pretend I don't understand that.

That said, given the length of postseason games now with commercials where many of them run over four hours, I don't think I'll be upset to be starting the broadcasts a little earlier in October.

FH: How about your relationship with [MLB announcing partner] Tim McCarver? You guys seem to get along great on the air, I was wondering what your relationship is like outside the booth.
JB: You know, things really couldn't have worked out any better. I remember meeting and talking to Tim in the clubhouse when I was a kid and my dad (Jack Buck) was doing Cardinals games, and then all these years later we end up being partners.

FH: Last question, you've been doing baseball and football games for more than a decade on FOX. You've done a number of World Series and Super Bowls now. What has been your favorite sporting event that you've broadcasted so far?
JB: It's really hard to top the Super Bowl [XLII] between the Patriots and Giants [in 2008]. My hands were trembling for that entire fourth quarter while I was doing the game, and it wasn't from being nervous or anything. It was just the tension of the game was so high, there was so much on the line. That's been a real highlight for me in my broadcasting career.