PASADENA, Calif. — Those who worked with Chris Rose at WXIX-TV (Channel 19) knew he was destined for bigger things in television.

        They just didn't imagine Fox's Celebrity Boxing bouts, or what Fox Sports Net so modestly calls the Best Damn Sports Show Period.

        Neither did he. The 1993 Miami University graduate figured by this time he'd be a big city sports anchor or the sidelines reporter for a sports network.

        “I still have a dream of getting into the play-by-play booth and calling NFL games,” says Mr. Rose, who hosts the first anniversary telecast of the BDSSP today (8-10 p.m., Fox Sports Net).

TALK OF THE TOUR

“Hopefully with this show, people will start looking at Latinos as just people, and not see color first. ABC is no different from NBC or CBS, because the color that's important is the color green.”    — George Lopez, star of ABC's George Lopez Show family sitcom, when asked if he feels additional pressure to succeed, being a Hispanic comedian

        The BDSSP, heavily promoted during Reds game telecasts, has developed a cult following for its unusual blend of sports talk, interviews, entertainment celebrities and comedy sketches parodying Bill Clinton, Ozzy Osbourne, Don King or Howard Cosell. Guests have ranged from Barry Bonds to Ben Affleck, Shaquille O'Neal and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

        Mr. Rose, 31, serves as the moderator — or is it referee? — during the freewheeling discussions by retired athletes John Kruk (baseball), John Salley (NBA), DeMarco Farr (NFL) and comedian Tom Arnold.

        “I consider myself the school bus driver back in fifth or sixth grade. There will be fights, but I'm not going to stop the bus every time one breaks out,” says Mr. Rose, who won a 1994 Midwest regional Emmy for his Channel 19 “Gridiron Gurus” high school football features.

        Mr. Rose was just one of many Fox Sports Net anchor-reporters, along with former Channel 19 basketball analyst Kevin Frazier, when he was asked to host the BDSSP rehearsals a week before the premiere. He got the gig two days later.

        “There is no blueprint for this show, which is probably its strength,” he says. “And that was the strength at Channel 19, where the bosses said, "Go for it.' ”

        Even Fox Sports Net executives didn't know what they had a year ago. The BDSSP — called simply the Best Sports Show Period by Reds announcer George Grande — premiered as a one-hour show buried at midnight with older former athletes on the panel, Deacon Jones and Reggie Theus.

        It moved to prime-time in September, expanded to two hours in December, and took over prime-time in March. The rise of this hybrid talk-celebrity-sports show squeezed Fox's respected ESPN-like National Sports Report off the schedule. Ironically, the success of Mr. Rose's show prompted Mr. Frazier, his Channel 19 buddy and godfather of his son, to jump to ESPN to anchor NBA studio show.

        After graduating from Miami, the Cleveland native started his TV career as a part-time camera operator for the WKRC-TV (Channel 12) morning news, making $4.85 an hour. Three months later he was hired as a production assistant for the start-up of Channel 19's news department.

        He was hired “for basically nothing and kind of stuck in a corner,” recalls Greg Hoard, Channel 19 sports director. Impressed by his sports knowledge, Mr. Hoard used him as a sports producer and editor. Then Mr. Rose was drafted for duty when the station needed a fill-in weekend sports anchor.

        “Chris was a natural. He just seemed to blossom in front of the camera. It was as if he was just waiting for that moment,” Mr. Hoard says. They knew he could be a star.

        In two years, he was hired as a sports anchor in Reno. A year after that, in 1996, he was hired for the start-up of CNN/SI in Atlanta. He came to Los Angeles in 1999 for Fox Sports Net, where he anchored and covered Tiger Woods and the PGA Tour.

        Now he's on the best (expletive deleted) show on TV, at least in the humble opinion of the folks at Fox. And he's host of Fox's worst (expletive deleted) show, Celebrity Boxing.

        Sports Illustrated ripped him last spring for participating in the Fox ratings stunt, but Mr. Rose is confident Celebrity Boxing won't knock him out of a respectable TV career.

        He's confident that he'll be an NFL announcer some day. But who knows?

        “Five years ago, who ever thought that a show like BDSSP would exist?” he says. “But if 10 years from now I'm doing Celebrity Boxing No. 63, then just shoot me.”

        Legal brief: David E. Kelley has added a new, young lawyer to The Practice. Jessica Capshaw will play “a recent law school graduate, a little bit of a know-it-all,” says Susan Lyne, ABC Entertainment president.

        Bergen back: Candice Bergen, host of Oxygen's original flagship Exhale show, returns with a new Sunday show, Candice Checks It Out, at 9:30 p.m.Aug. 18.
        TV critic John Kiesewetter is reporting from the summer press tour. E-mail: jkiesewetter@enquirer.com.

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