Does anyone remeber the EPL Highlights show with Lionel Bienvenu and Max Bretos. FSW discontinued it almost 3 years ago now, but I used to love that show. Very cool and totally unprofessional , except for the match commentary and highlights. I was wondering if anyone knew what the host, Lionel B., is doing now. Is he working on any other sports shows?
AFAIK, the EPL show was dropped because a) most FSN affiliates outside NYC couldn't justify the use of programming space (not enough people watching to sell ads) and b) the EPL International TV deal done from 2000-present called for TWI, already the producer of most EPL matches, to provide weekly preview and highlights shows. FSW saved a lot of money by handing the highlights show over to TWI rather than doing their own highlights show in conjunction with BSkyB (the program used many announcer feeds direct from Sky Sports plus Matt Lorenzo reviewing the tabloid headlines).
Thanks for the info guys. Glad to see he's doing well. Despite the expense etc, sometimes you wish that channels like Fox would stick with a classy show. That show was 10 times better than the TWI highlights. But, at least we get something.
and from 1998-2000 hosted "The English Premier League Soccer Show" on Fox Sports Net and Fox Sports World. The show was seen in the U.S., Europe, and Central and South America. The show was so popular that there were 6 different soccer teams across the U.S. that named themselves after "Bienvenu".
Me too. I moped around the house for a few days after I heard about its cancelation. My wife thought I was pathetic.
Well, I went ahead and emailed him. His reply: ... Thanks for the note. I still get lots of e-mail from EPL fans. It's hard to believe it's been more than 2 and a half years since Fox cancelled the show! Anyway, working for ABC here in Denver, I still do a weekly EPL update show on Tuesday nights. Hope all's well with you. Lionel
I sent Lionel an e-mail and got a very nice reply. It sounds like he's doing well. I think he appreciates hearing from fans of his old show. Thanks for the link, bigtw64!