High school football is back in its traditional season, and WRAL-TV and HighSchoolOT are ready to bring you all the highlights, scores and headlines. Football Friday and HighSchoolOT Live kick off tonight, Friday, August 20, 2021.
HighSchoolOT Live starts at 7pm. Watch on the HighSchoolOT app or wherever you stream WRAL. Nick Stevens and his new co-host (stay tuned for the big announcement!) offer expert analysis, instant replays and live look-ins for the best high school football games across North Carolina. This year, fans also will have the option to listen to a live audio stream of the show from the HSOT app.
Football Friday airs at 11:35pm on WRAL-TV.
WRAL-TV Producer Kelly Riner serves as producer of both shows.
Weve been practicing and getting everything ready, she told Capcom. We have a ton of updates and changes this year. It will be WRAL-TV Sports Anchor/Reporter Chris Leas first season as the host of Football Friday. Hiring during the pandemic has been challenging but we are confident we have built a great team for FF and HSOT. We also have a new graphics system. Huge thanks to WRAL-TV Lead TV And Graphics Systems Designer John Renigar and WRAL-TV Visual Design Director Shan Zhong for an incredible graphics package. We will even have some AR style graphics we can use on the news set. This is exciting and something weve not done before.
One new facet to the 2021 season is that WRAL-TV now has a 7pm newscast.
For the first time, there will be a complete crew working on the 7pm news at the same time another control room will be fully staffed for a 7pm HSOT Live start, explained Riner.
The CBC team is ready for whatever this season brings.
We also have worked through some scenarios if there are needs for quarantines, etc, explained Riner. Our engineers and crews are amazing and make even the most challenging proposals seem possible. We are looking forward to a fun and exciting season!!!
Lea will only be the third host ever for Football Friday, which is now in its 41st season. He replaces Jeff Gravley, who left WRAL at the end of 2019. Gravley had followed the legendary Tom Suiter, the original host of the half-hour local program.
HighSchoolOT.com Senior Editor Nick Stevens hosts HSOT Live. The show begins at 7pm, streaming, and stays on until the last game is over.
HighSchoolOT.com: Week 1 HSOT Live' lineup features multiple defending champs, runners-up
Both shows take quite the team to make them happen.
In the control room for HSOT Live we have 2-3 directors (one for each hour), 2 graphics operators splitting the duties, 2 audio operators, an Associate Producer and me, said Riner. There are 2 replay operators in the other studio and a floor director. In the field, we have at least 7 crews shooting games.
For Football Friday, we have 10 photographers, and a regular newscast-size control room, she continued.
In total at least 3 dozen people come together to make the high school football programs happen each Friday night of the season.
Links:
Football Friday
HighSchoolOT Live
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
26/11/2025
A cinematic snow sculpture at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Randall Michelson...
26/11/2025
Book podcasts are booming. On Spotify, you'll find everything from celebrity book clubs to deep dives with bestselling authors. And in markets where audiobo...
26/11/2025
Mumbai, November 24, 2025: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, JioStar, in collab...
26/11/2025
LONDON Factual content producer ITN Productions has launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins....
26/11/2025
MIAMI TelevisaUnivision said it struck a new multiyear distribution agreement with YouTube TV that includes distribution of TelevisaUnivision's U.S. network...
26/11/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leader in software-defined data storage and data services, today announced the launch of the Atlas Corporate Creative Solution. This new Atl...
26/11/2025
Disguise, the industry-leading company powering the world's biggest live performances, is partnering with pioneering LED wall manufacturer DVS to give atten...
26/11/2025
HighField AI, the pioneer in agentic and multimodal automation for broadcast and media production, today announced the expansion of its global channel partner n...
26/11/2025
As high-stakes Premier League fixtures approach and additional premium content launches, with MONO positioning themselves to dominate Thailand's sports stre...
26/11/2025
Hosting a wide variety of events from high-intensity NHL games to complex live music concerts and major entertainment productions, Montreal's 21,000 capacit...
26/11/2025
Vizrt, the leader in live production technology revolutionizing viewer engagement and experience, releases AI-driven advances focusing on speed, intelligence, a...
26/11/2025
ITN Productions, an award-winning factual content producer, today launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins. Responsible for delivering a leading...
26/11/2025
Ikegami reports ongoing advances throughout 2025 in developing and delivering coordinated television production solutions that maximize quality, versatility and...
26/11/2025
Following the Nov. 21 blackout of NBCUniversal channels on Fubo, the two sides have traded barbs about their inability to reach a new carriage deal....
26/11/2025
LONDON As TV sports rights become increasingly important for both broadcasters and streamers, Ampere Analysis predicts global investment in the genre will surpa...
26/11/2025
LOS ANGELES Vubiquity said it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Entertainment Competency as part of the AWS Partner Network (APN). This designa...
26/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau said it has entered into a consent decree with Comcast calling for the cable company t...
26/11/2025
Berklee Named to the Hollywood Reporters Top Music Schools List The publication highlights the college's screen scoring program, industry partnerships, and ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
Animated Series Love Through a Prism' Casts New Light on ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
NALIP Unveils Fifth Cohort of Director Incubator
Social Impact
26 November 2025
United States
Link copied to clipboard
The National Assoc...
26/11/2025
YouView Achieves Greenly Gold Certification for SustainabilityNov 26, 2025
YouView is proud to announce a Gold Certification award from Greenly for our perform...
High school football is back in its traditional season, and WRAL-TV and HighSchoolOT are ready to bring you all the highlights, scores and headlines. Football Friday and HighSchoolOT Live kick off tonight, Friday, August 20, 2021.
