AJ Mleczko / Alison Redmond / all-female broadcast team for men's sports / Ana Caty Hernández / association football / Canada / Cassie Campbell-Pascall / Christine Simpson / ice hockey / International Women's Day / Jennifer Botterill / Kate Scott / Kathryn Tappen / Kendall Coyne / Leah Hextall / National Hockey League / Rob Corte / sports / women in broadcasting

List of International Women’s Day 2020 men’s professional team sports television broadcasts with at least 2 female commentators

- by Oliver Tse

Frame capture from the Hockey Day in America special broadcast of the National Hockey League on U.S. free-to-air terrestrial broadcast television network NBC on February 16, 2020 announcing the talent lineup for the International Women’s Day special broadcast of the NHL on U.S. all-sports pay TV network NBCSN on Sunday, March 8, 2020 at 7pm Eastern Time. 37-year-old Oakland, California-based multi-sport play-by-play announcer Kate Scott, who has no prior experience with calling ice hockey play-by-play commentary at any level, was NBC Sports President of Production/Executive Producer Sam Flood‘s surprise choice to call play-by-play commentary. AJ Mleczko will be in the broadcast booth with Kate Scott. Kendall Coyne Schofield will be the ice-level “Inside the Glass” analyst. Canadian Jennifer Botterill will be the studio analyst, joining host Kathryn Tappen. An all-female production team, led by Producer Rene Hatlelid and Director Lisa Seltzer will produce the telecast. Courtesy NHL/NBC Sports Group.

By Oliver Tse

Email: workingnow88@workingnow88.com
Twitter: @workingnow88

Published on March 6, 2020. Updated on March 7 and 8, 2020. This article will be updated as additional information is released by the television networks.

On the weekend of International Women’s Day, Sunday March 8, 2 confirmed telecasts of men’s professional team sports contests originating in North America will feature at least 2 women as commentators in the broadcast booth.

Below is the list of men’s professional team sports contests in North America on the weekend of March 7-8 which might feature at least 2 women as commentators in the broadcast booth (not counting sideline reporters):

1. National Hockey League (NHL): Calgary Flames vs Vegas Golden Knights

Video frame capture from the March 7, 2020 episode of NHL Hockey Central Saturday (which aired on Canadian free-to-air terrestrial broadcast TV networks CBC and Citytv, Canadian all-sports pay TV network Rogers Sportsnet, and U.S. all-sports pay TV network NHL Network) promoting the International Women’s Day special broadcast of Rogers Hometown Hockey on Rogers Sportsnet in Canada on March 8, 2020 at 6:30pm Eastern Time featuring an all-female game broadcast crew of rinkside reporter Christine Simpson, game analyst Cassie Campbell-Pascall and play-by-play announcer Leah Hextall. Courtesy NHL/Rogers Media.

Date/Time: Sunday, March 8, 2020. Pre-game show at 6:30pm Eastern Daylight Time (4:30pm Mountain/3:30pm Pacific), with opening faceoff shortly after 7pm Eastern Daylight Time/5pm Mountain (Calgary)/4pm Pacific (British Columbia)

TV Networks: Rogers Sportsnet (Canada, all-sports pay TV network available coast-to-coast), ESPN+ (USA, pay-subscription Internet streaming video service)

Play-by-play commentator: Leah Hextall (CAN)
Game analyst: Cassie Campbell-Pascall (CAN)
Rinkside reporter: Christine Simpson (CAN)

Studio hosts: Ron MacLean (CAN), Tara Slone (CAN) (broadcasting from mobile studio at Rogers Hometown Hockey street festival in Salmon Arm, British Columbia)

Roger Media President of Sportsnet and NHL Properties: Bart Yabsley (CAN)
Roger Media Vice President of Sportsnet and NHL Production: Rob Corte (CAN)
Executive Producer, Rogers Hometown Hockey: Alison Redmond (CAN)
Senior Producer, Rogers Hometown Hockey: Deidre Hambly (CAN)
Roger Media Executive Producer of NHL (Game) Production: Ed Hall (CAN)
Game producer: Maria Skinner (CAN)
Game director: Dawn Landis (CAN) – on loan from The Sports Network (TSN)

Notes: Viewers in the U.S. using subscription Internet streaming video service ESPN+ will only have access to game video as ESPN+ does NOT have rights to the pre-game show or the intermission segments. Video clips of all interviews and features will be available worldwide via the @hometownhockey_ account on Twitter. The interview by MacLean and Slone of Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF) founder Billie Jean King, which took place in New York City on February 24, will air during first intermission.

2. National Hockey League (NHL): Chicago Blackhawks vs St. Louis Blues

Frame capture from the Hockey Day in America special broadcast of the National Hockey League on U.S. free-to-air terrestrial broadcast television network NBC on February 16, 2020 announcing the talent lineup for the International Women’s Day special broadcast of the NHL on U.S. all-sports pay TV network NBCSN on Sunday, March 8, 2020 at 7pm Eastern Time. 37-year-old Oakland, California-based multi-sport play-by-play announcer Kate Scott, who has no prior experience with calling ice hockey play-by-play commentary at any level, was NBC Sports President of Production/Executive Producer Sam Flood‘s surprise choice to call play-by-play commentary. AJ Mleczko will be in the broadcast booth with Kate Scott. Kendall Coyne Schofield will be the ice-level “Inside the Glass” analyst. Canadian Jennifer Botterill will be the studio analyst, joining host Kathryn Tappen. An all-female production team, led by Producer Rene Hatlelid and Director Lisa Seltzer will produce the telecast. Courtesy NHL/NBC Sports Group.

Date/Time: Sunday, March 8, 2020. Pre-game show at 7pm Eastern Daylight Time (6pm Central/4pm Pacific), with opening faceoff shortly after 7:30pm Eastern Daylight Time/6:30pm Central (Chicago)/4pm Pacific.

TV Networks: NBCSN (USA, all-sports pay TV network formerly known as “NBC Sports Network”), Premier Sports 1 (UK and Ireland, all-sports premium pay-subscription TV network)

Play-by-play commentator: Kate Scott (USA)
Game analyst (booth level): AJ Mleczko (USA)
Game analyst (ice level): Kendall Coyne Schofield (USA)

Studio host: Kathryn Tappen (USA)
Studio analyst: Jennifer Botterill (CAN)

NBC Sports Group Chairman: Mark Lazarus (USA)
NBC Sports Group President: Peter Bevacqua (USA)
NBC Sports Group President of Production: Sam Flood (USA)
Game producer: Rene Hatlelid (USA)
Game director: Lisa Seltzer (USA)
Associate producers: Erin Bollendorf (USA), Kaitlin Urka (USA)

Notes: 37-year-old Oakland, California-based multi-sports play-by-play announcer Kate Scott was selected by NBC Sports Group President of Production Sam Flood for this play-by-play commentary assignment despite having ZERO previous experience with the sport of ice hockey at any level. Scott credits NBA Golden State Warriors radio play-by-play announcer Tim Roye, who had experience calling ice hockey play-by-play on radio during his stint in Utica, New York in 1979-1986, as her ice hockey play-by-play mentor.

Sportscaster Kate Scott, a member of the Class of 2005 at the University of California at Berkeley, appeared in this short promotional video “How to Respond to People Who Say You Can’t” for the California Alumni Association in 2017. Courtesy California Alumni Association.

“One of my favorite things is when people tell me I can’t, or you shouldn’t, or you won’t…I just pause, let them finish, and I look them in the eye and I say: WATCH ME!” – Kate Scott

During the 2nd intermission of the NHL on NBCSN broadcast on March 4, 2020, host Liam McHugh (left) discussed the upcoming all-female NHL on NBCSN broadcast scheduled for March 8 with NHL on NBC game analyst and 1988 Winter Olympic Gold Medalist US Women’s National Ice Hockey Team member AJ Mleczko. Courtesy NHL/NBC Sports Group.

On January 22, 2020, NHL club Chicago Blackhawks released this long-form feature video “As Fast as Her” on Kendall Coyne Schofield with appearances by her parents John and Ahlise Coyne, her husband NFL Los Angeles Chargers offensive lineman Michael Schofield, 1998 U.S. Women’s Ice Hockey Olympic Gold Medalist Cammy Granato, NBC Sports/Chicago Blackhawks NHL TV analyst Ed Olczyk, St. Louis Blues TV analyst Darren Pang, Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane, Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman, Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and Women’s Sports Foundation founder Billie Jean King and 2-time U.S. Women’s Soccer FIFA Women’s World Cup Champion/2-time Olympic Gold Medalist and current ESPN soccer TV analyst Julie Foudy Courtesy NHL/Chicago Blackhawks.

“…My mission in this game (women’s ice hockey) is to leave this game better than it was…To see the growth in this game it shows that we (women) are worth something…Cammi (Granato) heard she wasn’t worth anything. I’ve heard that I wasn’t worth anything. And I think, I continue to fight and play this game so that these little girls aren’t told they are not worth anything.” – Kendall Coyne Schofield

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National Hockey League on International Women’s Day 2020 Part II: KATE SCOTT will call play-by-play of Chicago Blackhawks vs St. Louis Blues on NBCSN in the U.S.

About Oliver Tse

Oliver Tse operated Oliver Tse Management Group in 2006-2009 to secure product endorsement opportunities for poker players and broadcast talent appearing on televised poker events such as the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the World Poker Tour (WPT), and the NBC Sports National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Among his clients were 3 out of 9 players at the 2007 WSOP Main Event Final Table airing on ESPN (including the champion), the first woman to win a mix-gender WPT event (at the 2008 WPT Celebrity Invitational), and the first female sportscaster on U.S. Spanish-language television who made a successful career switch to poker announcing and hosting and became the original “Voice of Poker in Latin America.” Tse’s clients were deployed as brand ambassadors to emerging international markets for poker including Germany, Russia, Brazil, and Mexico. From 1995 through 2007, Tse founded and operated soccerTV.com, an Internet-based marketing business of televised soccer products for clients including ESPN, FOX Sports, and GOLTV. Tse holds a master’s degree in Financial Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and a master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Tse currently lives in San Francisco.

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