Ernie Johnson Jr. Height, Weight, Age, Facts, Biography

Ernie Johnson Jr. is an American sportscaster who is best known for his work as the studio host of MLB (Major League Baseball) on TBS (2006–2010, 2020-Present), an American presentation of the regular season and postseason MLB game telecasts that air on the American pay-TV network TBS. He is also well recognized for his hosting, since 1990, of Inside the NBA, the postgame show for NBA on TNT (a branding used for broadcasts of NBA (National Basketball Association) games shown on the American basic cable TV channel TNT since 1989). Over the course of his career, as of October 2022, he won the Sports Emmy Award 6 times (2001, 2006, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020)  in the category of ‘Outstanding Sports Personality, Studio Host’.

Born Name

Ernest Thorwald Johnson Jr.

Nick Name

Elevator Ernie, E.J.

Sun Sign

Leo

Born Place

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States

Residence

Braselton, Georgia, United States

Nationality

Education

Ernie had attended the Marist School, a private Catholic school located in Brookhaven, Georgia. After his high school graduation in 1974, he joined The Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, a constituent college of the University of Georgia, a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia.

He graduated summa cum laude (typically in the top 1%, 2%, or 5% of their class, depending on the institution) from there in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in journalism.

Occupation

Sportscaster

Family

• Father – Ernie Johnson Sr. (d. August 2011) (Sports Commentator, Former Professional Baseball Player, World Series champion in 1957 with the Milwaukee Braves)
• Mother – Lois Denhard

Net Worth

Ernie Johnson Jr.’s net worth had been $16 million according to CelebrityNetWorth.com.

Build

Slim

Height

6 ft 1 in or 185.5 cm

Weight

74 kg or 163 lbs

Girlfriend / Spouse

Ernie has dated –

1. Cheryl Johnson (1982-Present) – Ernie got married to Cheryl, a licensed professional counselor, in 1982. They have 2 children together – a son named Eric Johnson and a daughter named Maggie Johnson. The couple had also adopted 4 children – a boy named Michael (adopted from Romania, suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy) (d. 2021), and 3 girls named Ashley (adopted domestically through foster care), Carmen (adopted from Paraguay), and Allison (adopted domestically through foster care).

Race / Ethnicity

White

He is of American descent.

Hair Color

Salt-and-Pepper

Eye Color

Light Brown

Sexual Orientation

Straight

Distinctive Features

• Slender frame
• Receding hairline
• Affable smile
• Often sports a light stubble

Religion

Christianity (Evangelicalism)

Ernie Johnson Jr. Facts

1. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Ernie, and his family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1959, after his father retired from professional baseball.
2. During his freshman year at the University of Georgia, Ernie played first base on the university’s Georgia Bulldogs baseball team.
3. He got his first sportscasting job, as a news/sports director for the radio station WAGQ-FM in Athens, Georgia, while he was still in college.
4. In 1979, Ernie started working as a news anchor at WMAZ-TV in Macon, Georgia. About 2 years later, he joined, as a news reporter, WSPA-TV in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
5. He then started working for WSB-TV in Atlanta as a general assignment news reporter, in 1982. He became their weekend sports anchor and reporter about a year later.
6. He worked there until 1989 when he joined Turner Sports, the sports division of Turner Broadcasting System‘s basic cable networks, with separate TBS Sports and TNT Sports brands, organizations where he worked for several years thereafter and where he became one of the most recognized and loved voices in American sports broadcasting.
7. In 2003, Ernie was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a group of blood cancers that includes all types of lymphomas except Hodgkin Lymphoma (a type of lymphoma in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes).
8. Despite this, he continued to work until June 2006 before undergoing treatment. He returned to work in October 2006 while continuing his chemotherapy.
9. In April 2017, he published his memoir titled Unscripted: The Unpredictable Moments That Make Life Extraordinary.
10. In October 2018, Ernie announced that he would not be a part of the 2018 MLB (Major League Baseball) postseason coverage after he was diagnosed with blood clots in both of his legs.
11. In 2019, he was presented with an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Indiana Wesleyan University, a private evangelical Christian university headquartered in Marion, Indiana.
12. In 2021, the National Sports Media Association honored Ernie with the ‘National Sportscaster of the Year’ award.

Featured Image by Ernie Johnson Jr. / Instagram