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John Fanta’s new show, Fanta in 60, debuts Monday night at 6 p.m. ET on Peacock and the NBC Sports NOW FAST channel.
Ahead of the show’s launch, he spoke to Front Office Sports about what he’s striving for with the talk show, his hottest takes, a surreal interaction with a broadcasting icon, and his revelation that he’ll be a part of NBC’s Summer Olympics coverage in Los Angeles in 2028.
Front Office Sports: You’re starting this new talk show. A lot of your work with NBC and just professionally in general has been related to the games, whether that’s doing play-by-play or sidelines or studio. Do you see yourself ever wanting to have a daily national talk platform, kind of like Dan Patrick’s show or The Herd?
John Fanta: Well, look, I love all sports. And for me, I idolize those guys. They speak up about what they’ve done every day. And I think I don’t look at myself as just a play-by-play guy or just a host or just a reporter.’
I think a lot of people looked at my career up until this time last year and said, “Well, you know, he’s been a college basketball person.” And the biggest reason why I joined NBC was to show I could expand beyond that. And so for me, the same can be said of the medium that I’m doing it in that I love the idea of bringing this show into people’s living rooms. And we’re going to start by doing it one day a week. And, it’s my goal for us to grow a product that people enjoy. We’ll take it where we go. I wouldn’t say that I want 12 to 3 or 6 to 9 or, in this case, 6 to 7 every single day to trump the responsibilities I have elsewhere for the company. I think that everything can go hand in hand.
Because I like what I do in the play-by-play world and the reporting world, and I’m hopeful that I can continue to do all of these types of things.
FOS: When you do Big East “Spaces,” I love it when you spar with some of these fans and get really animated. Are there any plans to have that type of audience interaction on your NBC show?
JF: We’re going to be animated—why wouldn’t we be? TV is emotion and sports is emotion. And to bring that energy that you get that people have heard on Spaces, we’re going to have a voicemail box.
That phone number will go live later this week. My goal is that we take people’s voicemails whether they are on the Browns quarterback saga that’s going down currently, or whether they’re on how LeBron fits in in Philadelphia, or whether they’re on someone’s movie review of what they saw over the weekend, or when somebody calls me and says, what’s your favorite Jersey Shore bar?
I want to be interactive with fans. I don’t just want to come on the air and say, “You know, this is what I think and that’s what I think.” I want to blend comments from X, other social media, and YouTube with linear TV. I want it to sort of morph into those communities because I have social media to thank for my ride.
I’ve been able to get more linear opportunities because I do think growing a social presence and audience has been important in that development. So I want to engage with people. I want them to be the pulse of the show. And I want us to answer as many voicemails live on our show that we can. And the voicemails that we don’t get to, we’ll probably be taping segments that will go on YouTube and on my X page so that we become that “Dear Abby” hotline. I want to be that.
FOS: You’re obsessed with all these sports, regional and national. How do you keep up with them on the road when you’re working events, flying, and the hotels don’t have half the games you need? How are you just keeping up on all of this when you’re all over the place?
JF: I read, and I will watch games back. I’ll watch tape. I read religiously. We have a research department in Stamford. They send a daily briefing for basically every sport. Without that daily briefing, I can’t do my job. I want to see what’s happening.
Take NFL preseason takeaways from the weekend. I don’t think many people were able to watch every single preseason game in its entirety. But I opened up that briefing and I saw Jayden Daniels had limited action. So then I take a look for the Commanders and I take a deeper look there for the Cowboys trying to figure out their backup quarterback situation.
Without that team of people behind the scenes, I don’t think any one human can consume every single thing that’s happening in this crazy world of sports. But I am a sports fan like our viewers and like you.
When I put my son down to bed and I’m with my wife at night, she’ll sometimes fall asleep at 8:30 or 9. And I can tell you right now from about 9 to 10:30 or 11, I’m watching a mix of what’s happening live. And then I’ve got my laptop open and I am in bed and I’m reading and I’m looking at what’s happening. What are the headlines? What’s going on?
Because to me, the preparation’s ongoing. My mind is spinning. And I think that that’s what you have to do if you’re going to be in the sports content game. You’ve got to be following what’s happening in real-time reacting to it in real-time. And for us, that’s why this show was a fun concept that’s now going to come to life because Monday, especially during football season, which is when this is launching, it’s the day. Everything’s happened over the weekend. We’re going to react to that, and then we’re going to look ahead. Here’s what’s coming your way. Here’s what we should be on the lookout for.
And at NBC, we’ve got all these different properties. So it’ll be fun to get guests who are sometimes checking in to us from an NBA game or checking in ahead of a big Big Ten football game that week, or whatever Sunday night game [NFL, NBA, or MLB] there is.
I’m constantly reading, and I talk to people. I live in New Jersey. I can tell you right now that my hour, 15-minute drive to Stamford, I get three to six phone calls in. Whether it’s people in the football, baseball, basketball world, I try to make the most of the time.
FOS: What’s your hottest take right now? Something that’s been burning up in you and you just want to unleash.
JF: Is it a hot take to say, I don’t think that the Chiefs will ever taste a Super Bowl game again in this current day and age? I think between the injuries and the wear-and-tear, and the league adapting differently now, I don’t think we’re going to see him climb the mountaintop in the NFL again in his career. I think his best days are behind him.
FOS: That’s spicy.
JF: If you want another spicy take, I’ve given this a couple times in the last couple weeks. I think Curt Cignetti is the next Nick Saban. Ooh. I think Indiana will win. I don’t think they’re done winning national championships. I think they’re a machine. I don’t think it was luck.
FOS: As you’ve gotten a bigger profile, who are some people in or out of sports that you can’t believe are familiar with your work and giving you compliments?
JF: I was at our NBC Upfront dinner event this past May. I’m standing in the middle of the room, and I’m the first-year guy—I’m the rookie. So when you’re the rookie, I’m wide-eyed in the room.
I’m looking at everybody from Tirico to Collinsworth—our NBA people had some playoff games—but, like, just some of our biggest names at the company. Tracy Morgan’s walking by as the Knicks are on this magical playoff run, and I remember thinking, well, that’s pretty cool. There’s Tracy Morgan!
But the coolest moment of the night was when somebody tapped me on the back and said, “I need a picture with you, because my wife thinks that you are so awesome and she loved you on the Derby.” And I turn around and it’s Bob Costas. And I’m thinking to myself, “Holy cow! Bob Costas is asking for a picture with me.” And I look at Bob. I go, “You want a picture with me?” I said, “I want a picture with you. ” I mean, I grew up watching you. Anchoring the Olympics in primetime. And I thought to myself, watching that, I want that to be my job. Like, that’s a dream to be any part of that. So, that was a moment for me that I point to, and I’m like, ‘okay, like, that is really cool that Bob Costas is coming up to me.’
And sure enough, I was on the group-chat where he sent the photo to his wife. I said, ‘that was an awesome, awesome experience.’
FOS: What’s your singular dream event to call in the next 10 years?
JF: I’m going to start the answer by saying this: it’s the truth I feel like I’m living a dream with the way the last year’s gone. I didn’t know I’d have Kentucky Derby or Football Night in America or baseball work.
The next thing is Olympics and having an Olympics in America. I don’t know what I’m going to be doing or what it looks like, but I think that’s the pinnacle of a broadcaster’s career, like it is for the athletes. And the fact that whatever it is, because I know I’ll be part of our team in some capacity—whatever that is that I get to do, that the first one that I do is in the United States, you really can’t script that for the circumstances to line up that way. Because I was not part of the Winter Games for a variety of reasons, one of which was we had a ton of college basketball, but I also came on too late to NBC.
But yeah, it’s a dream you think about. ‘Hey, will I ever be a part of an Olympics?’ Whatever role that is. And I’ve obviously played a bunch of different roles at NBC.
But for me, that’s the next dream on my list that I’ll have the opportunity to check off. Whatever NBC asks me to do for the Summer Games, I’ll be ready to go.
