Recent sports media news, including Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer on Thursday Night Football; a contract extension for Mina Kimes; the return of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball team; and Jerry Remy‘s plans for next season.
Storm, Kremer, Debut on Thursday Night Football
ESPN SportsCenter anchor Hannah Storm and HBO Sports reporter Andrea Kremer will serve as one of the broadcast teams for Amazon Prime’s streaming coverage of Thursday Night Football this season. The pair debuted on Thursday’s Vikings-Rams game with Storm as the play-by-play voice and Kremer the analyst. The Storm and Kremer announcing feed will be one of four that Amazon offers viewers, including the traditional FOX pairing of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, a Spanish-language feed, and the returning United Kingdom broadcast with Tommy Smyth as the analyst. [NFL.com 9.25]
ESPN Extends Kimes, Blackledge
ESPN has reached a multi-year contract extension with ESPN the Magazine writer Mina Kimes, the company announced Thursday. Kimes, in her fourth year with ESPN, will continue in her current roles as a writer and as a pundit on ESPN’s daytime talk shows. She also has a new podcast.
Earlier in the week, ESPN announced that it has also extended college football analyst Todd Blackledge. [ESPN PR 9.25, 9.27]
ESPN Plans to Bring Back SNB Team Intact
ESPN plans to bring its Sunday Night Baseball team of Matt Vasgersian, Alex Rodriguez and Jessica Mendoza back intact, the New York Post reported Thursday, despite “industry speculation” that ESPN could drop Mendoza and make Rodriguez the solo analyst. Mendoza’s contract expires at the end of the season.
In related news, Rodriguez will not be returning to Good Morning America, where he had been serving as a contributor over the past year, the Post reported Wednesday. [NYP 9.26, 9.27]
Remy Plans to Return in Reduced Role Next Year
NESN Red Sox analyst Jerry Remy intends to return to the broadcast booth next season in a reduced role as he continues to battle a recurrence of lung cancer. Remy told reporters prior to Wednesday’s Red Sox game that he will no longer travel with the team on road games and cut back from his current 115-game schedule. During the game, he made a brief appearance on NESN’s broadcast, his first since announcing his cancer recurrence last month. [Boston Globe 9.27, MassLive 9.27]
