Who is Cari Champion? The sports world knows Cari Champion as an American
broadcast journalist and
television personality.
[1] She has worked as an anchor and reporter for the
Tennis Channel and is currently the host of
ESPN2's
First Take.
Early life
Champion was born in June 1975 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
Los Angeles Times, who spoke in her classes.
[3] 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."
[4] In her junior year, she studied in
Washington, D.C. and earned an internship at
CNN.
[3] Champion graduated from UCLA in 1998,
[3] with an English degree.
[4]
Career
Champion began her broadcasting career at several television stations.
[4] 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."
[4] 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.
[5]
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."
[6] She was rehired in January 2008, but left shortly after in March for a broadcasting job outside of Atlanta.
[7]
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."
[4] 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.
[4] She joined the network in 2009.
[8] Champion worked as a courtside reporter,
[1] and anchored the channel's
Court Report news segment.
[4] She also worked as an entertainment reporter for the
Starz network and shows such as
The Insider and
Hollywood 411.
[3]
 |
| First Take crew |
On October 1, 2012, Champion joined
ESPN as the new host of
ESPN2's live debate show
First Take.
[1] She was hired over
Heidi Watney and
Jemele Hill for the job.
[9]
Personal life
Champion grew up as an avid basketball fan. She is a fan of the
Los Angeles Lakers and the
UCLA Bruins.
[4] According to her, she is 6 feet 1 inch tall "with heels".
[2] Before working on the show, Champion was an avid watcher of
First Take: "I love the barbershop debates that make
First Take feel different than
other programs".
[1] She currently lives in Connecticut.
[10]
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Who is Camren Renee Bicondova? The entertainment and acting world knows her as Camren Bicondova, she is an American dancer and child actress and part of the all-girl dance group 8 Flavahz.
