| Cari Champion Quick Info | |
|---|---|
| Height | 5 ft 10 in |
| Weight | 60 kg |
| Date of Birth | June 1, 1975 |
| Zodiac Sign | Gemini |
| Eye Color | Dark Brown |
Cari Champion is an American broadcast journalist and TV personality who has worked as an anchor and reporter of the Tennis Channel and ESPN’s First Take. In July 2015, Champion started working as an anchor for ESPN’s leading program SportsCenter.
Born Name
Cari Champion
Nick Name
Cari
Sun Sign
Gemini
Born Place
Pasadena, California, United States
Nationality
Education
Champion went to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she majored in English and minored in Mass Communications. In 1998, she graduated from UCLA with an English degree.
Occupation
Broadcast Journalist, TV Personality
Manager
She self-manages herself.
Build
Slim
Height
5 ft 10 in or 178 cm
Weight
60 kg or 132 lbs
Boyfriend / Spouse
Cari Champion has dated –
- Ryen Russillo
Race / Ethnicity
Black
She is of African-American descent.
Hair Color
Black
Eye Color
Dark Brown
Sexual Orientation
Straight
Distinctive Features
Thick Lips
Cari Champion Favorite Things
- Basketball Team – Los Angeles Lakers, UCLA Bruins
Source – Wikipedia
Cari Champion Facts
- She became interested in journalism in the hopes of transforming negative stereotypes of African-Americans.
- Back in her junior year, she studied in Washington, D.C. and earned an internship at CNN.
- Before rising to fame, she first started her broadcasting career by working on several TV stations. She then moved to West Virginia for her first reporting job.
- Before joining WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach, Florida, she worked as a reporter at the Orange County Newschannel in Santa Ana, California.
- In November 2007, she was fired from her position as an anchor for WGCL-TV in Atlanta for allegedly uttering profanity while on-air. At the time, Champion made an appeal and said in an interview that the floor director had not cued her and her co-anchor after the commercial break and that the microphone picked up a conversation with an unhandy mechanical screenwriter. She was rehired in January 2008 but departed from the station not too long after she was hired for a broadcasting job outside Atlanta.
- Following her relocation to Florida, she started covering news like human interest stories and devastating hurricanes. During her time in Florida, while working as a reporter, she developed an interest in tennis after she covered famous players like Venus Williams and Serena Williams. With her growing interest, she subsequently auditioned for the Tennis Channel’s news department and was among the 3 women selected from a group of more than 50 candidates. In 2009, she had officially joined the network. There, she worked as a courtside reporter and anchored the channel’s “Court Report” news segment.
- Champion also worked as an entertainment reporter for the Starz network, The Insider, and Hollywood 411.
- On October 1, 2012, she first joined ESPN as the new host of the network’s live debate show, First Take. For this position, she was picked over Heidi Watney and Jemele Hill. At the time, as the show’s acting host, she moderated debates between sports experts, Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith.
- On November 4, 2014, she made her journalistic debut for ESPN after she profiled and interviewed American football quarterback Cam Newton in a segment for E:60.
- For 6 months, Champion petitioned to become an anchor on SportsCenter and was officially promoted to the position in June 2015. On June 19, 2015, she hosted her final episode on First Take and had finally started anchoring morning editions of SportsCenter in July 2015.
Featured Image by Cari Champion / Instagram
