Former
Fox Soccer United States host Brandon Johnson hosted the
Formula D show for
G4 in 2006. Rossi Morreale was the show's host in 2005. Johnson was joined by
Attack of the Show co-host
Olivia Munn who covered the pits and drivers during the events and drifting expert
Adam Matthews who provided commentary and insight on the tandem battles. G4 aired each round on a tape-delayed basis. Jarod DeAnda is the
public address announcer at each event, earning him the moniker, "The Voice of Formula D." In 2005, G4 used DeAnda's event commentary track, but for 2006, used Johnson and Matthews calling each battle like a typical
play-by-play/
color commentator combination. Johnson and Matthews were on-site for each event, but it sounded as if they had taped their commentary after the event had already taken place. This practice is not uncommon in the motorsports business in post-production. In the 2005 season, there were two people working the pits — driver interviewer Mayleen Ramey, who was a roving reporter for the half-hour episodes, and a second anchor, who patrolled around the car show at each event. In 2005, G4 used three reporters for this job. From the round in Wall to the round in Houston, actor
Emeka Nnadi held the job. At the Infineon round,
Attack of the Show! co-host
Kevin Pereira took the duties, while
Street Fury host
Big C finished things out in Chicago and Irwindale. Also, G4 showed half-hour episodes in-between rounds, most of which focused on the network having its own
drift car built from scratch, with other segments focusing on the aspects of drifting. One of the first half-hour episodes in 2005 had one Formula D competitor,
Chris Forsberg go to Japan, and meet up with another competitor,
Daijiro Yoshihara, to explore the country and get more perspective on the birth of drifting. Episodes that featured event coverage lasted an hour and a half, and featured the top 16 tandem rounds, including those that needed to be run again, because the judges deemed them too close to call. These episodes aired the night after the next round in the series had already taken place. In 2006, however, coverage was dramatically different. The half-hour episodes were gone, event coverage was reduced to an hour, and their scheduling was quite random. The Long Beach and Atlanta rounds premiered on June 18, with the Chicago round airing on July 2, and the Sonoma round airing a week after it took place. During the Sonoma round, G4 noted that the Seattle round would premiere on September 10, but that date was changed to October 8, with the last two rounds (Wall and Irwindale) airing every other week afterward. These episodes featured more interviews and driver profiles, many of which would've been placed in a half-hour show last year, and many of the tandem battles have been cut out, and any battle that needed to be run again did not have its second run shown. This led to some criticism from those in the drifting community, including fans and some Formula D drivers. At the 2006
SEMA Show in
Las Vegas, Formula D co-founders
Jim Liaw and
Ryan Sage announced that the series would have a new television partner in 2007. That partner was
ESPN2. Each round began airing in a one-hour block on November 15 with the Long Beach round. All subsequent airings were supposed to be every Thursday afterward, but beginning with the Evergreen Speedway round on December 5, the air dates for new rounds switched to Wednesday. The ESPN deal lasted just one season.
SPEED Channel aired all rounds of the 2008 Formula D season, as well as the World Championship, scheduled for after the Irwindale round. Events aired on Sundays, beginning with the Long Beach round on October 26; all airings began at 4 PM Eastern. For 2010, Formula Drift announced a comprehensive race programming schedule with the sports network then known as
Versus (ironically co-owned with G4 by
Comcast). The seven-stop Formula DRIFT Championship Series programs aired over fourteen Sundays during the 2 PM (EST) / 11 AM (PST) time slot beginning Sunday, August 30. Each episode showcased all the on- and off-track action as the world's top drift drivers battle for the coveted title of Formula DRIFT Champion. The first episode, aired on August 30, will feature a comprehensive overview of the sport and drivers. Each episode re-aired the week following the initial airing. ==See also==