Michelle and Ed Wyatt: The Footy Evangelists

The Greatest Season That Was Presents...

US Revolution features Mason Cox, Shannon Gill and American broadcaster Ed Wyatt in an exploration of Australian Rules Football's US connections. The 8-part series features additional interviews with Paul Roos, Mason Cox, Jason Holmes, ESPN's Bob Ley and former VFL / AFL star John Ironmonger.

Since the resumption of the AFL season the interest in Australian football from the US has continued , with now Fox Sports and ESPN both carrying matches in the USA. But the idea of how to make the AFL an ongoing success beyond the spike of interest during COVID-19 is a challenging one.

In a previous episode of US Revolution we spoke to Bob Ley – an ESPN original who was there in the heady days of the early 80s when Australian rules had a prime spot in the schedule because of the lack of rights to the major US sports.

BY the 90s ESPN had fallen out of love with the sport as it bounced around irregular scheduling on the network. For expats and US converts it hit rock bottom when the broadcast of a Grand Final was delayed by a baseball game.

One of our own, Ed Wyatt, and his Australian sports television producing wife Michelle were two of those who thought the game deserved better in the 90s. Michelle was producing for Fox Sports in the US and decided it was time Australian football was given a proper push.

On TGSTW Presents US REV - we talk to Michelle, and Ed, about how they got Fox Sports to televise the AFL in the US during the 90s and the highs and lows of trying to push our game into the American TV market.

The Greatest Season That Was is produced by Jay Mueller and is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network.

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