Danny Parkins had just finished his second episode as co-host of FS1’s new show Breakfast Ball Tuesday and was headed to Grand Central Terminal to look for a place for his family to live in New York.
A Chicago native, Parkins had a meteoric rise in the radio business, landing his dream job as co-host of the afternoon drive-time Parkins & Spiegel Show on WSCR The Score, the top sports radio station in the Windy City.
Then television beckoned. Parkins has spent the last few months as a guest host on FS1’s First Things First with pal Nick Wright and then filling in for Colin Cowherd.
“They said they like what I did filling in for Colin and that they would be in touch in a couple of weeks,” Parkins told Broadcasting+Cable. “When I did finally hear from them and the conversation started shifting to ‘would you be willing to move,’ that’s when I realized that it was getting pretty serious. It all happened in a pretty quick period of time.”
Fox Sports decided to team Parkins with former NFL lineman Mark (Stink) Schlereth, a three-time Super Bowl winner, and Craig Carton, who had headlined the Craig Carton Show on FS1.
Parkins said he’d had both guys on his radio show, but didn’t really know them.
“Like a lot of these things, it’s kind of an arranged marriage,” he said.
“The vision is three guys who get along, but also could be brothers, with Stink being the oldest brother who has the experience, and Carton, who’s the middle brother who says a bunch of stuff that could be outlandish, attention-getting and hilarious,” Parkins said. “And I’m the younger brother who also thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room who is not afraid to take it to the older guys with more experience.”
In the first shows, Schlereth has been calling the plays. “He’s got three rings on his finger. I’m certainly not going to cross Mark Schlereth,” Parkins said. “I think it’s a three man weave. I fully anticipate being able to get all of my points out there.”
Parkins said the chemistry of the show will be helped by the three hosts’ experience doing sports radio. Schlereth had been doing radio in Denver, where his football career concluded. And Parkins called Carton a “radio legend.”
Carton had been the host of the top-rated Boomer and Carton with former Jets quarterback Boomer Esiason on WFAN sports radio in New York until he was convicted for securities and wire fraud and served 12 months in prison. The show was simulcast nationally by CBS Sports Network. Carton was later rehired by WFAN and joined FS1.
Parkins’ radio show in Chicago was promoted as “a long four hours” a day. “Even in a quote-unquote slow time on the sports calendar, two hours is never going to feel like a long show for us,” he said.
“We also are really good with active listening, you know, actually hearing what the other person says,” he added. “I think sometimes you take someone who only has done TV and then put them in long-form television and all of a sudden these segments can feel really long. That’s not the case for us, so I really like that the three of us have a radio background.”
He said Breakfast Ball is basically sports talk radio on TV. In Chicago, there was chemistry on Parkins & Spiegel, with co-host Matt Spiegel and producers Shane Riordan and Chris Tannehill.
“Now it’s going to be me, Craig and Mark,“ he said. ”That’s what I’m trying to recreate and make it the best sports jock television show possible. That might sound cliche, but it’s true because I need this to work and I’m highly motivated to make it work.”
Breakfast Ball is spending its debut week in FS1’s noon (ET) time slot while Cowherd is on vacation. It shifts to its regular 8 a.m. time slot next week.
“FS1 is evolving around a dynamic roster of sports talk personalities, and we couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead,” said Charlie Dixon, executive VP and head of content, FS1. “From early morning to late afternoon, viewers can look forward to an array of compelling sports discussions, expert analysis and exclusive interviews, all designed to keep sports enthusiasts informed and entertained throughout the day.”
Football an Early Focus
With the NFL season about to start, Breakfast Ball is focused on football, football and more football, with a lot of talk about the Cowboys, Chiefs, 49ers, the Jets with Aaron Rodgers — and Parkins’ view that rookie Caleb Williams is already the best quarterback in Bears history.
“We’re playing the hits on TV, just like we played the hits on my show on Chicago radio,“ he said. ”In Chicago radio, it’s Bears, Bears, Bears, Cubs. This is NFL, NFL, NFL and then some national stories. Playing the hits is something that every radio boss I’ve ever had has said, and my new TV bosses have said the same thing.”
The show will have occasional big-name guests, like Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton. “We will have contributions from the terrific team of Fox experts, like Greg Jennings,” he said.
“Mark knows everybody. Everybody likes Mark. So we’d be crazy not to take advantage of his connections,” he added. “I’ve heard that Tom Brady works for Fox. That would be very exciting.”
While the football season never ends, with the draft, free agency and training camps all driving the sports conversation, Parkins expects to have more time for the NBA in May and June during the playoffs.
“We’re a week away from football season starting,“ he said. “We haven’t exactly planned out what the shows are going to look like in March.”
On the radio, Parkins had ample opportunity to share his personality and personal stories with the audience. Listeners are familiar with him being conceived during Bears’ Super Bowl victory in 1986, going with his father to watch Michael Jordan play for the Bulls, the birth of his children (one of whom picked NFL games against the spread on air), his willingness to trade his dog Omar (named after the character in The Wire) for quarterback DeShaun Watson and his brother’s battle with terminal brain cancer.
There were also a variety of attention-getting stunts from bringing a sign to Wrigley Field urging the Cubs to sign free agent Manny Machado to singing songs about letting Bears QBs Mitch Trubinsky and Justin Fields throw the ball to buying a Caleb Williams No. 13 jersey to encourage the Bears to draft the Heisman Trophy winner.
“TV audiences will probably never know me as completely as radio audience because radio is such a personal medium,“ he said. “There’s clearly a difference between radio and TV, but there are ways to get your personality out there. I’ll figure out ways to scratch my creative itch. I’m two days into my TV career, right? No one has told me that there are things that I can’t say.”
On Wednesday’s show, he was kidded by his co-hosts for already being spotted in front-row seats at Yankee Stadium and the U.S. Open. With the kids still in Chicago and the show at midday, “I’m living my best life,“ Parkins quipped.
In 2021, Parkins stayed on the air 24 hours as part of a “What About Chicago?” radiothon to raise money to build a supermarket in a Chicago neighborhood where healthy food was largely unavailable.
His last stint on air at The Score was another marathon, this time working with the Chicago Cubs to support brain cancer research that raised more than $660,000.
“The radiothon will be continuing and I will be hosting,” Parkins said. “It’s in my contract. [Fox] said anything that’s important to you is important to us, so as long as the Cubs and [Score owner] Audacy still want to do it, I will be missing one or two days from the TV show next August to be back in Chicago hosting the radiothon again.”
Being on the radio in Chicago was Parkins’ dream job. Now he’s given that up for TV. Is being part of a pregame show now part of his future? Or being part of an in-game broadcast booth.
“We are in uncharted waters now. Now we are into a portion of the program that was not scheduled and was not planned out,” Parkins said. “
“I'm ambitious, so any opportunities that come my way, I'm going to be interested in exploring, but I can honestly say I have not considered that,” he said. “I’m moving my family and I'm leaving my literal dream job for this. The only professional goal I have right now is to make this television show work and be as good on TV as I could possibly be so that they keep wanting to put me on TV.”
