By Oliver Tse
Email: workingnow88@workingnow88.com
Twitter: @workingnow88
Published on July 22, 2018. Updated on July 23, 24, 25, 29, 30; August 13 and 16, 2018.
August 13, 2018 update: proving yet again no idea is unique, FOX Sports (USA) will assign Lisa Byington, Danielle Slaton, and Katie Witham to broadcast a Major League Soccer (MLS) match between DC United and New England Revolution on Sunday August 19, 2018 at 7:30pm Eastern Time. The first-ever all-female TV broadcast team for a Men’s professional team sports event in the U.S. will air on all-sports pay TV network FS1. Media columnist Richard Deitsch of The Athletic broke the story in his column (subscription required). Byington will be the 3rd woman in the world to call play-by-play of Major League Soccer (MLS) matches on TV. French-Canadian play-by-play announcer Claudine Douville was the first to do so on Canadian French-language all-sports TV network Le Réseau des Sports (RDS) as she called the Vancouver Whitecaps vs Montréal Impact match from BC Place Stadium in Vancouver on March 10, 2012. Mexican play-by-play announcer Iris Cisneros called the Los Angeles FC vs Philadelphia Union match “off tube” from a sound booth at a TV studio in Mexico City for broadcast on Los Angeles Spanish-language TV station KFTR-DT “UniMás 46” on June 30, 2018.
NEW YORK – While over a dozen sports television executives around the world (including executives at FOX Sports and Telemundo Deportes in the U.S. who “worship at the church of what’s working now”) deployed a record number of women to provide play-by-play…
[Video below courtesy MauditsFrancais.ca: Interview of 54-year-old French-Canadian TV sportscaster Claudine Douville from July 2, 2018. Douville is believed to be the first woman in the world to call TV play-by-play of the FIFA Men’s World Cup regardless of language or nationality. Douville has called 7 men’s world cups starting with FIFA Men’s World Cup USA 1994. She called play-by-play of 43 FIFA Men’s World Cup Russia 2018 matches “off-tube” from the studio of Canadian French-language all-sports pay TV network Le Réseau des Sports (RDS) in Montréal. During FIFA Men’s World Cup 2018, 9 women around the world called television play-by-play in 5 languages to viewers in 13 countries. ]
[Video below courtesy FIFA/RDS: Highlights from Final Match of FIFA Men’s World Cup Russia 2018 (France vs Croatia on July 15, 2018) as broadcast on Canadian French-language all-sports pay TV network Le Réseau des Sports (RDS). Commentators: Claudine Douville (play-by-play), Jean Gounelle (analysis).]
… in-match analysis (co-commentary), and studio analysis (punditry) during FIFA Men’s World Cup Russia 2018, one particular executive stood above the rest because he assigned 3 pioneering female sportscasters to call the final match live from the TV tribunal at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on July 15, 2018.
Juan Carlos Rodríguez, a Miami-based sports TV executive with a fearless attitude and a “go big or go home” business philosophy, assumed control of Mexican sports TV entity Televisa Deportes in March 2018 in addition to his existing role as President of U.S. predominately Spanish-language sports TV entity Univisión Deportes.
Rodríguez was able to combine the resources of both Univisión Deportes and Televisa Deportes to put together 4 TV commentary teams for the 2018 Men’s World Cup Final Match for broadcast in Mexico on 5 TV networks owned by Mexican media conglomerate Televisa. (Note: Televisa currently owns 49% of Univisión.)
1 Gran Final, 4 narraciones diferentes. Francia vs Croacia. 9:25am @TD_Deportes #Vamoscontodo @enriquebermudez @LuisOmarTapia @FJG_TD @kikinfg @jsanchez_tdn @SanOswaldo_TD @AnaCatyHdz @gabyfernandeztd @IrisCisneros_ @raulsarmiento @raul_perez_ @RusoZamogilny @marccrosas pic.twitter.com/XBaM8VhT0a
— Ernesto Castillo (@ecastillocruz10) July 14, 2018
1 of the 4 commentary teams, which broadcast the match to viewers in Mexico on free-to-air terrestrial TV network Televisa Canal 9 (El Nueve) and pay cable/satellite TV network Canal U, consisted of 3 women, all of whom are pioneers of Spanish-language sports TV in either the U.S. or Mexico.
[Video below courtesy FIFA/Televisa Deportes: Highlights from Final Match of FIFA Men’s World Cup Russia 2018 (France vs Croatia on July 15, 2018) as broadcast on Mexican free-to-air terrestrial TV network Televisa Canal 9 (El Nueve). Commentators: Iris Cisneros (play-by-play), Ana Caty Hernández (analysis), Gaby Fernández de Lara (play-by-play).]
- Iris Cisneros (age 28), the first woman to call play-by-play of a men’s professional team sports contest live from the stadium on U.S. Spanish-language television (Liga MX match Club América vs León on Univisión Deportes on 10 March 2018). Univisión Deportes hired Cisneros as a play-by-play announcer in March 2018, one year after her previous employer, satellite TV network SKY Sports México, promoted her from anchor/host/reporter to play-by-play announcer. Cisneros called play-by-play for the first 20 minutes of 2018 Men’s World Cup Final.
- Ana Caty Hernández (age 28), the first woman to provide in-match analysis of a men’s team sports contest live from the stadium on U.S. Spanish-language television (Liga MX match Club América vs León on Univisión Deportes on 10 March 2018). Univisión Deportes hired Hernández as a sports reporter in 2013 before promoting her to host/anchor in 2017 and match analyst in 2018.
- Gaby Fernández de Lara (age 46), the first woman in the world to call television play-by-play of a Mexican 1st Division fútbol match (Puebla vs Cruz Azul on Televisa Deportes on 18 April 2004). Fernández de Lara called play-by-play of last 70 minutes of the 2018 Men’s World Cup Final.
“They can look at me. I think that when you really, really fight for something that you wish to do, there is nothing that can stop you. So not just for Mexican women, but to the women around the world, please don’t feel inferior. Well then, Gaby, Iris and Ana Caty, that’s girl power. Go for it!” – 2018 Croatian Men’s World Cup Team Manager Iva Olivari
According to the Nielsen IBOPE México TV ratings service (as reported by Mexican news wire service Notimex), the 4 Televisa Deportes broadcasts of the Final Match of FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 combined to average 9.4 million Mexican TV viewers (6.0% rating), with the broadcast featuring 100% female announcers on Televisa Canal 9 drawing 1.4 million viewers.
As if July 15 wasn’t already a big enough day for Hernández, Univisión Deportes on-air talent Xavier Sol proposed to her shortly after the broadcast ended.
💍 Te amo @AnaCatyHdz
Te admiro, me inspiras, quiero cuidarte y hacerte muy feliz por el resto de nuestras vidas♥#Rusia2018 fue nuestro primer mundial, viajemos por el mundo juntos a donde nos lleve el fútbol ⚽ pic.twitter.com/NEEQaAaJ7H
— Xavier Sol (@XaviSol_) July 16, 2018
El momento de la noche: @XaviSol_ le propone matrimonio a @AnaCatyHdz al finalizar el partido. ¡Golazo del Sol de @TD_Deportes! Muchas felicidades 👏🐼🌞 pic.twitter.com/kGp56mZDWM
— Luis Omar Tapia (@LuisOmarTapia) July 15, 2018
Because no idea is unique, sports TV executives around the world implemented the idea of assigning women to TV commentary booths during the 2018 Men’s World Cup. Executives at 2 sports TV entities pushed the idea to its natural conclusion, as FOX Sports Brasil and Televisa Deportes both assigned 3 women to the TV booth to call matches.
[Video play list below: FOX Sports Brasil ad featuring a girl pretending to call play-by-play of a Men’s World Cup match between Brazil and Argentina, plus video clips from the talent contest TV program Narra Quem Sabe from which 3 women were selected as 2018 Men’s World Cup play-by-play announcers on FOX Sports Brasil and FOX Sports Dois Brasil. (Courtesy FOX Sports Brasil via YouTube.)]
🇧🇷 TEM QUE RESPEITAR! O primeiro gol do Brasil na Copa narrado por uma mulher: @isabellymoraiis. E como ela disse: para guardar na mente, no peito e na alma! #FOXNaRússia #JogaOqueSabe pic.twitter.com/9W4vT3lYqE
— FOX Sports Brasil (@FoxSportsBrasil) June 17, 2018
[Audio clip below: play-by-play by 28-year-old announcer Renata Silveira from the FOX Sports Dois Brasil telecast of the Final Match of FIFA Men’s World Cup Russia 2018 (Courtesy FOX Sports Brasil via Twitter)]
While FOX Sports Brasil kept its female sportscasters in its Rio de Janeiro studio to have them call matches “off tube” primarily for its second pay cable/satellite TV network FOX Sports Dois Brasil, Televisa Deportes saved its 3-women broadcast team for the final match only and deployed them at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow in order to generate maximum publicity.
If Televisa can do this for the FIFA Men’s World Cup Final, why can’t CBS or FOX do this for the NFL Super Bowl?
Ever since ESPN (U.S.) assigned 51-year-old Beth Mowins to call a National Football League (NFL) Monday Night game in 2017, the floodgates have opened for dozens of women to be assigned to the television booth as play-by-play announcers and game analysts (co-commentators) of various men’s professional and college team sports in multiple languages across multiple countries.
CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus was able to obtain permission from ESPN to hire Mowins to call play-by-play of 3 NFL games for regional TV distribution on free-to-air TV stations affiliated with the CBS TV network.
CBS Sports is also fortunate to have in its stable of sportscasters the only 2 females who have won the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television award, 64-year-old Lesley Visser (2006):
…and 59-year-old Andrea Kremer (2018):
Visser is currently under contract with CBS Sports to produce special projects:
…while Kremer works for CBS Sports as host of the sports talk show We Need to Talk on CBS Sports Network, the first sports talk show on U.S. television featuring 100% female talent targeting predominately male viewers ages 18-49.
McManus now has the opportunity to be the first U.S. English-language sports TV executive to implement an idea that would have been ridiculed by many as preposterous a week ago: use a secondary TV channel controlled by CBS, Inc., most likely pay cable/satellite TV network CBS Sports Network, to offer an alternative telecast of NFL Super Bowl LIII on February 3, 2019 that will feature 3 legendary female TV sportscasters, with Mowins calling play-by-play and both Kremer (who has 35 years of experience covering the NFL and turned down an offer from NBC Sports in 1989 to call play-by-play of 6 NFL games in order to sign with ESPN) and Visser (the only woman to have worked as a TV analyst during an NFL pre-season game in 2009) as game analysts.
Assuming that McManus were able to obtain permission from a super-majority of NFL franchise owners (notably New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft who has been a big supporter of Kremer and Visser over their Hall-of-Fame careers spanning the past 4 decades) to put Super Bowl LIII on a secondary channel with no additional rights fee, the additional production cost (including talent fee, travel cost, plus cost of practice sessions to call games either “off tube” or from a stadium) of producing a secondary telecast should not exceed $100,000. (Sideline reporters such as Tracy Wolfson and Evan Washburn can be shared on both broadcasts.)
In my opinion, as well as the opinion of a retired U.S Spanish-language sports TV executive whom I have known for the past 20 years, the additional production cost should be able to generate at least 10 times the value in positive publicity.
(NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is employed by the 32 NFL franchise owners. The ultimate decision whether to permit CBS to put Super Bowl LIII on a secondary channel for no additional rights fee will be made by the owners, with Kraft likely the most powerful voice in the boardroom.)
Furthermore, if McManus were to choose to pass on this idea, he should know by now that FOX Sports (U.S.) executives will likely implement the same idea for Super Bowl LIV on February 2, 2020, as FOX Sports President/COO/Executive Producer Eric Shanks, FOX Sports President of Production John Entz, and FOX Sports National Networks President Mark Silverman (who is in charge of pay cable-satellite TV networks FS1, FS2, and Big Ten Network) have in their stable of sportscasters at least two females who are capable of calling an American Football game professionally to the highest standards.
Internet trolls will have no case and no audience
The beauty of offering a primary telecast with male broadcasters and an alternate telecast with 100% female broadcasters is the following: Internet trolls who constantly complain about women broadcasting men’s sports on TV will have absolutely no case for their complaints and no audience to listen to them. If McManus were to implement this idea, viewers have a choice of watching the CBS broadcast network (free-to-air) with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo calling Super Bowl LIII, or CBS Sports Network (pay cable/satellite) featuring a 100% female broadcast team calling the game. No one is forcing a viewer to watch the game on CBS Sports Network.
As for the sportscasters, the time to act is NOW
Obviously, Beth Mowins, Andrea Kremer, and Lesley Visser need to act NOW if they are indeed interested in being part of a history-making all-female TV commentary team to call NFL Super Bowl LIII on an alternate broadcast on CBS Sports Network. After conferring with their agents and discussing the idea among themselves, I recommend that they contact Sean McManus together as a single, cohesive unit. There is always strength in numbers.
The same applies to those female sportscasters associated with FOX Sports, including but not limited to Lisa Byington and Jennifer Hale, if they are interested in calling Super Bowl LIV on FS1 or FS2. They need to contact Mark Silverman as a group after they have conferred with their agents and discussed the idea among themselves.
Why did I just write this blog article?
As some of you already know, I am a complete outsider who quit the agency business in 2009 and has moved on to another profession. Furthermore, I do not really know any of the people I mentioned by name above, as I have only interacted with some them in a limited way via social media. The only sportscaster I mentioned above whom I have met in person very briefly is Andrea Kremer. I met Kremer at a trade show at the Las Vegas Convention Center 19 years ago when she made a celebrity appearance at the ESPN booth with the late Stuart Scott.
During the brief time I operated an agency primarily to represent poker players in negotiations with sponsors, I was fortunate enough to have represented the first female sportscaster on U.S. Spanish-language television who accidentally became the original “Voice of Poker in Latin America”. She accepted the only assignment available to her when she applied for freelance work with ESPN Latin America & ESPN Deportes prior to the launch of ESPN Deportes as a full-time television network serving the U.S. Hispanic market in 2004.
During her broadcasting career (which ended in 2011 when her employer went out of business), she was the target of verbal and internet abuse from co-workers and viewers because of her gender. In May 1998, one of her male colleagues issued an ultimatum during a meeting with the executive producer of the sports division at the major U.S. Spanish-language television network where they worked in order to force the executive to remove her from the talent team prior to World Cup France 1998. She resigned from the company within 48 hours after that incident and was out of television for nearly 2 years.
Thankfully, what happened to her in 1998 is much less likely to happen today to anyone else at any media company in any country broadcasting in any language. While a colleague can offer tough, constructive criticism of another colleague’s work, any broadcaster who issues an ultimatum to an executive producer to have a colleague removed from an assignment solely based on gender will now result in a broadcaster being fired by any competent executive producer on the spot.
