For the past couple of years, The Carton Show, hosted by Craig Carton, has been covering all the major sporting topics from the NFL to the MLB during the weekday mornings.
Earlier in August there was a little cause for concern among those who tune in regularly as the show went off air for a while. When it returned it was no longer the same show. It had a new name: Breakfast Ball, and although Carton still had a prominent role, it was Mark Schlereth in the driver’s seat. Those who regularly tuned in to Carton’s show have likely found it difficult to adjust to the new dynamic, however, the show was still relatively new and it seems Fox Sports 1 is happy to change what it must to try and up the ratings.
For those unaware of the history of The Carton Show, it’s faced an uphill battle ever since it began airing, mainly due to the reputation of the man the entire show was built around – Craig Carton.
What happened to The Carton Show?
From the start, the show received heavy criticism due to Craig Carton being a convicted felon. In April 2019, the WFAN radio show host was sentenced to prison due to his part in a multi-million dollar ticket reselling scheme. Carton was sentenced to 42 months in prison for wire fraud and conspiracy. Carton also had a gambling problem with the sports host reportedly borrowing $30 million to fuel his addiction.
Carton was released from prison after serving a little over a year, although many believed that his career was over by this point. So when Fox Sport decided to not only give him a job, but to center an entire show around this man, many left baffled (to say the least). American sportswriter, Dan Le Batard called Carton’s career resurgence, “deeply offensive.”
“The idea that Fox would give a convicted felon a promotion when that opportunity would never go, in my history doing this, to somebody who isn’t white, is such an indictment of everything around me that I find it deeply offensive about our industry.”
He makes a good point, then again, if a convicted felon can run for president, I don’t see why it should be any different for a sports show host. But although Fox might not be done with Carton, many viewers were by this point. The ratings for the show weren’t exactly promising with one Reddit user earlier this year pointing out the fact that the Carton Show was averaging about 47,000 viewers per episode and was steadily declining.
All of this coupled with Craig beefing with his own show on social media and you can see why Fox might be starting to regret their decision. Of course, the network has supposedly signed a seven-figure contract with Carton so it seems the only way to try and claw back those ratings would be a soft rebrand.
The network’s solution seems to be: give the show a new name, put someone else at the front, and hope things pick up. Of course Carton does have his fans, despite his flaws, he’s good at what he does. So whether this new direction works out or not, we’ll just have to wait and see.