This past Monday, San Marino native Jacqueline Tsai shot what is known in the television business as “a tease” for the FOX Network’s NFL Sunday show that included the entire cast of “Justice League,” and was waiting for a call to see if she would fly to New York to film another spot with Armie Hammer.
She is in regular contact with such celebrities as Chris Hemsworth, Tyler Perry, Billy Bob Thornton, Terry Bradshaw, Clayton Kershaw and even beloved former Dodgers manager Tommy LaSorda.
Many long for a career in the world of sports – which is smartly referred to as “the toy department of life,” and for Tsai, that dream became a reality.
“I wanted to do features, tell stories about athletes,” said Tsai of her intentions upon graduating from USC in 2010 with a B.A in Broadcast Journalism and a Minor in Marketing. “News is too much doom and gloom.”
Tsai was working with the NBC affiliate in Seattle when she saw that Fox Sports was hiring people to help start the launch of its FS1 network in August, 2013. An old college classmate facilitated an interview and Tsai was hired in June.
Tsai worked as an associate producer on studio shows for college football, college basketball and Major League Baseball. When FS1 eventually launched, she was assigned to a three-hour, Saturday morning college football preview show, she produced teases, vignettes, essays and bumps. Oh my.
Teases, by the way, are short video segments interspersed during programming to attract the attention of an audience.
“Every piece of tape in that three-hour show was cut by me and 2 other associate producers,” Tsai said. “Then, as FS1 gained more contracts, I eventually began working on college basketball, particularly PAC-12 and Big East men’s and women’s basketball. During baseball season, the staff produced a show called MLB Whiparound five days a week, then a pregame show on Saturdays leading into our game or games of the week on FS1.”
Jacqueline was promoted to the position of features producer.
“I would travel to different cities and college campuses to produce features on different players,” she said. “My first ever feature was on Coach Ed Orgeron, when he took over as head coach of the USC football team.”
In August, 2016, Tsai was assigned to the FOX NFL Sunday crew.
“I now spend football season producing teases and various other tapes for Fox NFL Sunday, which is on every Sunday at 9:00 a.m. and features Curt Menefee, Howie Long, Terry Bradshaw, Jimmy Johnson, Michael Strahan and Jay Glazer. Once football season is over, I move to FOX’s NASCAR coverage and during the summer, I work on United States Golf Association events.”
Tsai – an accomplished golfer in her own right – was involved on the network’s first-ever broadcast of the U.S. Open, which took place at the infamous Chambers Bay near Tacoma, Washington, and has also helped out on the men’s, women’s, and seniors U.S. Opens, all of which are under contract with FOX Sports.
Her “favorite events” include the 2015 World Series between the Kansas City Royals and New York Mets and Super Bowl 51, KC and NYM in 2015 and Super Bowl 51, which was played in Houston, Texas and featured the historic comeback by the New England Patriots to defeat the Atlanta Falcons.
“I enjoy traveling to different cities I probably wouldn’t have ever visited and I get to experience special sporting events,” she said, when asked to list highlights of her profession.
The daughter of San Marino’s William and Jeannie Tsai, Jacqueline has two younger sisters, Jessica and Julia. Jessica lives in New York City, where she works as a freelance art fabricator. Julia is currently at Stanford, completing her Masters in Lab Animal Science and will soon be applying to vet schools. All three graduated from Pasadena Polytechnic, Jacqueline in 2006.
As exciting and desirable as her vocation might seem, Jacqueline is considering a change in scenery, so to speak.
“I think there is so much more I can do in terms of making a difference in the world,” Jacqueline told The Tribune. “I want to make a bigger impact on society.”
Currently, Tsai is exploring roles in media relations or public relations with nonprofit health organizations such as the American Cancer Society.
And coming from a profession where impact is everything, Tsai’s next chapter would indeed be bigger.
