On Thursday, ESPN decided to let go of both Samantha Ponder, which certainly complicates things when it comes to the future of Sunday NFL Countdown.
Ponder, who was let go along with Robert Griffin III in a move that the network announced was a “budgetary issue,” had been at the Worldwide Leader since 2011. One of her bigger responsibilities at the network has been hosting Sunday NFL Countdown, a role she has held since 2017.
Now that she is no longer with the company, ESPN will seemingly need to find a replacement for her, and quickly before the start of the 2024-25 NFL season.
But according to Andrew Marchand of The New York Times, ESPN has a number of candidates in mind. Marchand detailed that “sources with briefed on the network’s internal talks” believe that Get Up host Mike Greenberg is the favorite to replace Ponder, but NFL Live host Laura Rutledge is also another candidate for the position.
On the surface, it seems like Rutledge would be a very natural fit on the show considering her current work on an adjacent studio show centered around football. But Greenberg typically always finds himself as a candidate whenever positions open up on studio shows.
Regardless, expect to hear an announcement from ESPN shortly on who will ultimately replace Ponder considering we are less than a month away from the debut of Sunday NFL Countdown for the 2024-25 NFL season.
