How Fox Landed Yankees Legend Jeter For Prime Show

New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter will take his bow as a full-time television analyst on Fox’ MLB pregame show for the London Series, the two-game series between the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals this weekend.

It’s been a moment nearly a decade in the making, according to the Sports Business Journal, which detailed what it took to finally get Jeter to commit to something television executives have chased since Jeter retired in 2014.

Television loves big names when it comes to sports broadcasts. They get no bigger than Jeter, who played 20 years for the Yankees, won five World Series rings, is in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and has his No. 2 retired.

Thing is, Jeter really showed no interest in migrating to TV like his former Yankees teammate, Alex Rodriguez, or one of his contemporaries, David Ortiz.

Jeter instead acquired a minority ownership stake of the Miami Marlins in 2017 and spent mor than four years as its chief executive before selling his stake in the club.

So what happened? Fox executives remained patient and maintained a relationships with him as his stance, well, softened.

They asked Jeter to do a voice-over for the Michigan-Ohio State game two years ago (Jeter is from Kalamazoo, Mich.). Then Jeter partnered with ESPN on his seven-part bio series, “The Captain. Jeter even got on social media, something he was patently against doing for decades.

Finally, Jeter appeared on Fox’s World Series pre-game show for Game 3 of the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies as part of a promotion. After execs witnessed the chemistry between him and Ortiz, Fox execs realized one thing:

“We have to make this happen.”

Turns out it sparked something in Jeter, too. The discussions between Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks, Fox president of production and operations Brad Zager and Jeter happened fast. By the Super Box, Fox had an announcement to make.

And Jeter had a new job.

“When I did the documentary, I had a chance to look back and give my perspective of how I felt when I was playing,” Jeter told SBJ. “Then I got an entirely different perspective from the front office/ownership aspect. There’s two different perspectives, and I’ve had experience in both.”