Tier Two - I Do a Great Job, but I have to. I just am not allowed to be a shock jock and make 5x as much.
3 POINTS - Erin Andrews
2000–2004: Early work
In 2000, Andrews was employed by Fox Sports Florida as a freelance reporter. From 2001 to 2002, she served as a Tampa Bay Lightning reporter for the Sunshine Network. From 2002 to 2004, Andrews covered the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Thrashers, and Atlanta Hawks for the Turner South network as a studio host and reporter.
2004–2012: ESPN
Andrews began working for ESPN in April 2004 as a reporter for ESPN National Hockey Night. She has also reported for the College World Series, Little League World Series, and Great Outdoor Games. Andrews began serving as a sideline reporter for ESPN College Football Saturday Primetime and Big Ten college basketball games, and in 2005, her job expanded to include ESPN College Football Thursday Primetime and Major League Baseball sideline reporting. From 2008 to 2010, she reported for ESPN's and ABC's live coverage of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
In 2010, Andrews competed on the tenth season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars with partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy. They placed third out of 11 couples.
2012–present: Fox Sports and host roles
Andrews reporting for Fox Sports on the deck of USS Midway (CV-41) in November 2012
On June 29, 2012, it was announced that Andrews was leaving ESPN to join Fox Sports. She was the first host of Fox College Football's studio show and was joined by analysts Eddie George and Joey Harrington. Andrews also became a contributor on Fox NFL Sunday and served as a field reporter for most major sporting events aired on Fox, such as the MLB All-Star Game, the World Series, the NFL Playoffs, and Daytona 500.[15] With the launch of Fox Sports 1 on August 17, 2013, Andrews became the guest host of Fox College Football Kickoff and Fox College Saturday, a direct competitor to ESPN College Gameday, which previews the weekend's biggest college football games. Andrews also contributed to the daily studio show Fox Football Daily. Beginning with the 2014 NFL season, Andrews became the sideline reporter on Fox's lead NFL broadcasting crew after replacing Pam Oliver. She later re-signed with Fox Sports in 2016 to report exclusively with the network's NFL crew.
In March 2014, Andrews replaced Brooke Burke-Charvet as co-host of Dancing with the Stars, joining Tom Bergeron for the show's 18th season. She and Bergeron remained in their roles through the show's 28th season.
Andrews has also co-hosted the CMT Music Awards twice, having hosted the 2015 ceremony with actress Brittany Snow on June 10and the 2016 ceremony with NFL player J. J. Watt on June 8.
She's made it because she's very good at her profession. I enjoy all of her reporting and the homework she puts behind it. Just not a mega-personality like most of the rest.
4 POINTS - Lesley Visser
Visser is the first female NFL analyst on TV, and the only sportscaster in history (male or female) who has worked on Final Four, NBA Finals, World Series, Triple Crown, Monday Night Football, the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the World Figure Skating Championships and the U.S. Open network broadcasts. Visser, who was voted the No. 1 Female Sportscaster of all-time in a poll taken by the American Sportscasters Association, was elected to the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association's Hall of Fame in 2015.
Visser was the first woman to be recognized by the Pro Football Hall of Fame as the 2006 recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award which recognizes long-time exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.
Begins television career at CBS Sports
In 1983, she did a few features for CBS. In 1984, Visser joined CBS Sports part-time and went full-time in 1987. Her assignments included the NBA including the NBA Finals, college basketball including the Final Four, MLB including the World Series, College World Series, college football, horse racing, Tennis including the U.S. Open of Tennis (1984–1993) and the Olympics.
In 1989 she covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, focusing on how sports would change in East Germany. In 1990 she became a regular on The NFL Today with Greg Gumbel, Terry Bradshaw and Pat O'Brien. Also in 1990, Visser became the first woman to cover the World Series. In 1992, she became the first and only woman to handle the Super Bowl Trophy presentation.
ABC Sports and ESPN
After CBS lost television rights to NFL games in 1993, Visser went to ABC Sports and ESPN. In 1995, she became the first woman ever to report from the sidelines during a Super Bowl when she covered Super Bowl XXIX for ABC. In 1998, she became the first woman ever assigned to Monday Night Football. She also covered Super Bowl XXXIV for ABC in 2000.
While at ABC Sports, Visser served as a reporter for college football bowl games and the NFL playoffs games during Wild Card Saturday. She also contributed to horse racing including the Triple Crown, ABC's Wide World of Sports, Major League Baseball, including the 1995 World Series, figure skating, Special Olympics, skiing, the Pro Bowl, and an ABC series A Passion to Play. She co-hosted the network's coverage of the "Millennium Tournament of Roses Parade."
For ESPN, Visser covered the Super Bowl, college basketball, figure skating, and horse racing including the Triple Crown.[14] She also contributed to SportsCenter, NFL GameDay, and Monday Night Countdown.
Return to CBS Sports
In August 2000, Visser returned to CBS, with her assignments being NFL, college basketball, Tennis, Figure Skating and Horse Racing as well as special projects for CBS News. Today Visser's assignments are a contributor to The NFL Today and college basketball. In 2004, she became the first woman sportscaster to carry the Olympic Torch when she was honored in 2004 by the International Olympic Committee as a "pioneer and standard-bearer."
During the 2001 NFL season Visser became the first female color analyst(NBC's Gayle Sierens was the first female play-by-play announcer) on an NFL broadcast booth. She joined play-by-play announcer Howard David and analyst Boomer Esiason in the booth for Westwood One/CBS Radio. Visser also joined HBO's highly acclaimed Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.[17]
Visser was a pre-game reporter for The Super Bowl Today, where she covered Super Bowl XXXV, Super Bowl XXXVIII, Super Bowl XLI, and Super Bowl XLIV pre-game broadcasts, and during Super Bowl XLI she also served as a sideline reporter, becoming the first woman ever to do so.Visser was loaned to NBC Sports twice to cover the Olympics as she covered the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens when she served as the Equestrian reporter. She also covered the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino as a reporter for Short Track Speed Skating.
In September 2007, she returned to roots as she now writes a column for CBSSports.com. (Bastages dropped my radio show after they bought sporstline.com. LOL)
Helped pave the way for a lot of women to get into sports on TV. But again, like above, had to be super professional and isn't really a mega-personality. Just damn good.