https://twitter.com/MsPeters14/status/1380331531483422726
https://redgifs.com/watch/motionlesstartslothbear
https://gfycat.com/defenselessgloomybackswimmer
https://www.reddit.com/r/hot_reporters/comments/mqhrvz/cari_champion/
https://www.reddit.com/r/NewsLadies/comments/mqhl5a/cari_champion/
https://www.reddit.com/r/HotNewswomen/comments/mqhqym/cari_champion_vice_on_tv_formerly_of_espn/
http://www.vibe.com/article/next-espns-cari-champion
Cari Champion (born June 1, 1978) is an American
broadcast journalist and
television personality.
[1] She has worked as an
anchor and reporter for the
Tennis Channel and as the host of
ESPN2's
First Take. In July 2014, Champion became an anchor for
ESPN's flagship program
SportsCenter. After almost six years at the network, she left ESPN in February 2020. She now co-hosts
Cari & Jemele (Won't) Stick to Sports with
Jemele Hill on the
Vice on TV network.
Early life[edit]
Champion was born in June 1978 and raised in
Pasadena, California.
[2] Champion attended the
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she majored in
English and minored in
mass communications. She wrote for the
Daily Bruin and was inspired to pursue a career in
journalism by UCLA alumni, including Matea Gold of the
Washington Post, who was the editor in chief of the student newspaper.
[3][4] Champion was drawn to journalism with goals of transforming negative stereotypes of
African Americans: "I wanted to give people a voice that didn't have a voice. I'm always fighting for the underdog. I don't know where I got it from, but I've been like that all my life. That's why I love journalism."
[5] In her junior year, she studied in
Washington, D.C. and earned an internship at
CNN.
[4] Champion graduated from UCLA in 1998,
[4] with an English degree.
[5]
Career[edit]
Early broadcasting work[edit]
Champion began her broadcasting career at several television stations.
[5] She moved to West Virginia for her first reporting job.
[1] She later said of working there: "I was a one-man-band carrying a camera and a tripod and that was God-awful. But I loved it because I wanted to do it. I always wanted to be a reporter."
[5] She was a reporter at the
Orange County Newschannel in
Santa Ana, California before joining
WPTV-TV in
West Palm Beach, Florida in the same capacity in 2002.
[6]
In November 2007, while working as an anchor for
WGCL-TV in Atlanta, Champion was fired for allegedly uttering a profanity over the air. She appealed the firing and said in an interview for the
Maynard Institute that the
floor director had not cued her and her co-anchor following a commercial break, and that the microphone picked up a conversation they were having about an unhandy mechanical screenwriter: "I called the screenwriter a 'mothersucka' not the
f-bomb."
[7] She was rehired in January 2008, but left shortly after in March for a broadcasting job outside of Atlanta.
[8]
After moving to Florida, Champion covered news such as
human interest stories and devastating hurricanes in the state.
[1] While working as a reporter there, she developed an affinity for tennis after covering players such as
Venus and
Serena Williams: "They made me love the sport even more. They opened the door to tennis for so many different people."
[5] She subsequently auditioned for the
Tennis Channel's burgeoning news department and was one of three women selected from a pool of more than fifty candidates.
[5] She joined the network in 2009.
[9] Champion worked as a courtside reporter,
[1] and anchored the channel's
Court Report news segment.
[5] She also worked as an entertainment reporter for the
Starz network and shows such as
The Insider and
Hollywood 411.
[4] Cari is now a cohost of the Titan Games created by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.