ESPN is holding onto one of its most prominent rising stars.
ESPN announced Wednesday that it has reached a multi-year contract extension with NFL Live and SEC Nation host Laura Rutledge, who will continue in her current roles on the aforementioned studio shows and as a contributor to major event programming such as the NFL Draft, College Football Playoff and Masters.
The deal comes after ESPN passed over Rutledge for its highest-profile NFL studio position, host of Sunday NFL Countdown. That role went to Mike Greenberg after ESPN laid off previous host Samantha Ponder.
In its announcement of her extension, ESPN said Rutledge may take on additional responsibilities over the course of the contract. With ESPN’s primary football teams already having well-established studio hosts (Greenberg and Rece Davis) and sideline reporters (Lisa Salters and Holly Rowe), there are no obvious opportunities for a higher-profile role in the near term.
Nor are there obvious openings at other networks, beyond the “NFL Today” hosting role at CBS that seems destined to go to Nate Burleson in the event that James Brown, 73, chooses to retire in the near future.
On-site for the Sugar Bowl, Rutledge handled news updates from New Orleans after the New Year’s Day terrorist attack on Bourbon Street for both ESPN and ABC, generating both praise and speculation that she could eventually follow in the footsteps of Robin Roberts — a veteran of ESPN and SportsCenter who moved to ABC’s Good Morning America. Rutledge does have a cable news background having served as a sports anchor for CNN morning shows earlier in her career.
Rutledge has been with ESPN since 2016.
