Shake Up At Fox Sports1

Kate Nolan crashes Jay & Dan's set

FoxSports1 is making a “big bet on opinion-based sports programming” is doubling down in the hope its viewers really like the “Garbage Time” host Kate Nolan — a lot.

After news broke Thursday that late-night sports highlight show “Fox Sports Live” would be canceled and “Garbage Time” would be retooled, Sporting News reported the network will amp up Nolan’s presence across its programming slate.

The site quoted one anonymous executive as saying, “You’re going to see zero Jay and Dan, but you’re going to see five times as much Katie Nolan.”

“Jay and Dan” refers to “Fox Sports Live” hosts Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole, whose contracts were not renewed by the network after their show was canceled.

The NY Post reports FS1 vice president of content Charlie Dixon released a statement Thursday afternoon: “Throughout the evolution of FS1, we’ve been committed to creating programming that resonates with sports fans,” Dixon said. “As part of that commitment, we are constantly assessing all of FS1’s studio offerings, and despite changes to the format of ‘Fox Sports Live’ and the popularity of Jay and Dan as individuals, we’ve made the difficult decision to move forward with other projects.”

The end of “Fox Sports Live” should not come as a shock: The “SportsCenter” imitator never was a ratings success and has lagged far behind ESPN’s flagship program in viewership since its debut in 2013.

Onrait and O’Toole were billed as having the same kind of rapport as the “SportsCenter” hosts who made that show a hit in the 1990s, but audiences consistently chose the real thing over the Canadian knockoff.