ESPN has seen its two signature NFL studio shows each have hosting openings in the last year due to layoffs at the network.
Last year, ESPN let go longtime Monday Night Countdown host Suzy Kolber in a series of layoffs. In her place, ESPN tapped Scott Van Pelt, who already hosts the late night SportsCenter, to pull double duty on Mondays and host the pregame show as well.
This year, just weeks before the start of the new season, ESPN laid off Sunday NFL Countdown host Sam Ponder, who took over from Bristol kingpin Chris Berman. In her place, ESPN tapped Mike Greenberg, who also hosts Get Up, his own radio show, the NFL Draft, and had a stint hosting the network’s NBA studio coverage.
Do you sense a pattern?
Nowhere to be seen in either situation is ESPN’s most popular, most accomplished, and most consistent NFL host – Laura Rutledge.
Rutledge first joined ESPN back in 2014 working for SEC Network where she has hosted SEC Nation. In 2020, she added NFL Live hosting duties to her portfolio while also doing sideline reporting for ESPN NFL broadcasts. And in that time period, she has become the daily face of ESPN’s NFL coverage.
NFL Live has become one of ESPN’s most dependable programs and the chemistry Rutledge produces with regular castmates like Mina Kimes, Ryan Clark, Dan Orlovsky, and Marcus Spears is special. You would be hard-pressed to find anyone say a negative word about Rutledge regarding her hosting work at ESPN. She should be someone ESPN builds around as a present and future cornerstone of the network.
And yet, when it comes to ESPN’s Sunday and Monday NFL pregame shows, ESPN has decided to pass over her in favor of male talent that quite frankly, don’t need the extra work or the extra platform. The optics of Rutledge being overlooked obviously aren’t great for ESPN. And it makes even less sense from a programming and talent perspective.
For years ESPN’s focus was on making sure that nobody was bigger than the brand and that the network didn’t overly depend on singular personalities like Berman, Keith Olbermann, or Dan Patrick. In 2024, they are taking the exact opposite approach by making Stephen A. Smith, Pat McAfee, and Mike Greenberg a constant presence on a near 24/7 basis. Ironically, that might come back to bite ESPN with SAS asking for a gargantuan new contract and potentially walking away from sports altogether.
So if you’re ESPN, why not deepen your top line talent, continue building a new star, and reward the work Laura Rutledge does covering the NFL on a daily and weekly basis? Why give yet another role to the Mike Greenbergs of the world who already risk over-exposure as is? (Bonus points if Greeny mentions he’s a Jets fan in Week 1 on Countdown.) It’s like NBC forcing Jimmy Fallon onto Summer Olympics coverage because of some unwritten rule or obligation that only NBC executives felt and nobody else was really asking for.
The same is seemingly true here of ESPN. It’s a shame that Laura Rutledge wasn’t given one of these NFL pregame opportunities based on her excellent work and rapport with NFL fans. Hopefully some day she will.
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