On Thursday morning Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported Craig Carton would be leaving WFAN, this time for Fox Sports instead of prison. Earlier this year Carton began hosting his eponymous morning show with Fox, but the grind of double duty with WFAN in the afternoon has been too much. Fox is willing to pay him "millions" to dedicate himself to mornings only. So Carton is off the radio waves, which leaves Evan Roberts without a co-host in the afternoons.
Marchand listed two candidates currently in the running to replace Carton. The first is Tiki Barber, already employed by WFAN as one half of Tiki & Tierney. The second is Jerry Ferrara. Yes, that Jerry Ferrara. Per the Post:
WFAN will now search for a new partner for Evan Roberts in the afternoon.
Roberts will remain on the show and is likely to take Carton’s place as the driver of the program.
Internally, Tiki Barber is the leading candidate while, externally, Jerry Ferrara is someone WFAN will consider, according to sources.
Barber, the former Giants great, currently co-hosts WFAN’s mid-morning show, “Tiki & Tierney.” Ferrara, who is from Bensonhurst, played Turtle on the HBO series “Entourage.”
Ferrara did a show with Roberts earlier this year that FAN executives liked.
What has Ferrara been up to recently? He inked a brand ambassador deal with Bet MGM in 2022 and co-hosts a betting podcast for the company called Unleashed. He also hosts his own comedy podcast called Bad 4 Business. So while it is funny to think Turtle is going to host an everyday sports radio show he actually seems fairly well-equipped to do so for a personality who is an actor first and a sports pundit second.
Remarkably that is not the weirdest part of Marchand's report. If Fox is giving Carton a seven-figure deal you'd figure his show was killing it in the morning slot. It turns out that's not true, it's actually struggling, and the network hopes it'll get better by removing Carton from the "constriction and exposure" of radio.
FS1 executive vice president of content, Charlie Dixon, believes in Carton.
Carton has not rated very well in his first year at FS1, but there is hope among some at FS1 that, without the constriction and exposure of radio, Carton will perform better on TV.
I mean... one would think the exposure of radio would help the show, no? I guess this could mean that listeners to Carton on WFAN don't feel like they need to tune into The Craig Carton Show because they've heard the takes before. Or they get sick of him quickly. Either way the fact that Fox thinks less Carton will make for better ratings feels counterintuitive to giving him millions of dollars.
The end result is more Turtle on the radio, though, which feels like a win for everyone.
This article was originally published on thebiglead as Craig Carton Leaving WFAN, Might Get Replaced by Turtle From 'Entourage' .
