“Van Talk” ended abruptly due in part to previous comments made by Katz and Barstool founder Dave Portnoy about then-ESPNer Sam Ponder, and former-ESPN president John Skipper later said that the network wasn’t able to distance itself from the Barstool brand as much as it wanted.

Since then, Barstool has grown into a digital media powerhouse, leading to Thursday’s merger. After speculation surfaced earlier this week, Fox Sports and Barstool Sports officially announced a “wide-ranging” collaborative partnership Thursday, bringing together a tradition sports broadcast network and digital content provider.

FS1 needs a whole new slate of morning programming. / Fox Sports 1. The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported that FS1 canceled three of its daytime hot take shows on Monday. This instigated a round of speculation about which personalities the network will ...