When the ACC announced a broadcast rights deal with the CW, it seemed like a curious pairing. How many people even know where to find the network on their television? It ranks as the 29th most popular TV network in the U.S., between A&E and We TV, but it’s hoping that the ACC can bring additional eyeballs.
The network’s college football broadcasts are a great opportunity for the CW to promote the rest of its programming to a new audience. For example, did you know the CW has a show called FBoy Island? It’s a dating show that, as the show’s official synopsis puts it, “follows three women who move to a tropical paradise where they’re joined by 26 men—13 self-proclaimed ‘Nice Guys’ looking for love, and 13 self-proclaimed ‘Fboys,’ there to compete for cold, hard cash.”
This is the show that the CW decided to plug during the first quarter of Saturday night’s Virginia-North Carolina game—and the network really lucked out, because it seems like color commentator James Bates is a big fan of the show.
Bates did the promo read and totally knocked it out of the park.
Great moments in college football broadcasting: pic.twitter.com/fzimZdv0du
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) October 22, 2023
“Everyone at home, are you watching FBoy Island? Well, the answer should be, ‘Eff yeah!’” Bates said. “Watch an all new season of FBoy Island on the CW, Mondays at 8, 7 Central. Stream free the next day on the CW app. Season 3 has started. By the way, the finale of Season 2 a couple weeks ago was incredible. It is about two or three shows in right now. They’re already kicking f-boys out of there left and right. Nice guys are sticking around. They’ve kicked a couple f-boys off, so make sure you’re checking that out on the CW when you’re not watching us call these great football games.”
The best part is that Bates totally ad-libbed the promo. He posted a photo on social media after the game of the card he was supposed to be reading off of, and it wasn’t nearly as fun as what he actually said.
