
Behind the Mic: Bleacher Report Gives Adam Lefkoe More Air Time, Fox Sports Dismisses Chris Carter By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Friday, November 8, 2019 - 8:00 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Behind the Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, Bleacher Report extends a rising on-air star, Fox Sports cuts ties with a well-known personality, ESPN outlines their broadcast team for the reimagined XFL, and a new face appears on College GameDay.
Bleacher Report has reached a multi-year extension with versatile host Adam Lefkoe. As part of the agreement, Lefkoe will expand the scope of his Turner Sports responsibilities to serve as the studio host for NBA on TNT Tuesday night coverage alongside the newly formed team of three-time NBA Champion Dwyane Wade, WNBA Champion and two-time MVP Candace Parker, and Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal.
Lefkoe will also continue to be an integral part of Bleacher Report's premium content offerings including Ditch the Playbook with Lefkoe and The Lefkoe Show podcast. He has also been closely connected to B/R's NFL coverage, along with a wide array of video content offerings over the last six years.
In addition to his expansive B/R role, Lefkoe will also be tapped for select Turner Sports opportunities and special projects over the length of the agreement, such as his contributions to the 2018 presentation of The Match: Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson.
I'm absolutely thrilled to continue working with B/R and Turner Sports, said Adam Lefkoe. To now also become a part of the TNT family is a dream come true. I can't wait to sit on that storied set alongside Shaq, Dwyane, and Candace and capture the excitement of the NBA.
Adam has demonstrated a unique ability to establish a strong connection with passionate sports fans and his expanded responsibilities reflect the talent and versatility he has shown since joining B/R, said Tara August, SVP of Talent Relations & Special Projects, Turner Sports. We're thrilled to expand the scale of his responsibilities as we further advance our commitment to hiring and retaining top voices that advance our brands and the premium content we deliver to fans across all platforms.
Lefkoe joined B/R in 2013 and has steadily increased responsibilities both with Bleacher Report and throughout the Turner Sports portfolio. He has become widely recognized throughout the industry for his thoughtful, engaging and conversational interviews with athletes and deep knowledge of leagues, teams, and players.
Prior to joining B/R, Lefkoe was an Emmy award-winning sports anchor. He was also named the Associated Press Kentucky Sportscaster of the Year in 2013.
This multi-year agreement with Lefkoe is the latest extension with prominent B/R brand voices. Bleacher Report's robust roster of popular talent and contributors includes Howard Beck, Wade, Taylor Rooks, Mike Freeman, Mirin Fader, Jonathan Abrams, and Tyler Dunne, among others.
In recent years, Bleacher Report has transformed its editorial team with an added focus on the delivery of premium shows and video content. B/R has built out its content division under the leadership of recently hired Sam Toles as Chief Content Officer, Bleacher Report. B/R currently reaches more than 200 million fans each month with 75% of its audience under the age of 34
According to Sports Business Journal's John Ourand, Fox Sports and NFL Hall of Famer Chris Carter have parted ways. Carter, who has been at the network since December 2016, expressed his dissatisfaction with not being used on the Thursday Night Football pregame show. Former New York Giants lineman Chris Canty has been his replacement for the show, First Things First, which also features Nick Wright and Jenna Wolfe
Two commentator teams comprised of talented and authentic voices from ESPN's college football and NFL rosters will call ABC and ESPN's 22-game schedule during the XFL 2020 season.
Play-by-play voice Steve Levy, analyst Greg McElroy, field analyst Tom Luginbill, and reporter Dianna Russini will call the highly-anticipated XFL kickoff game - Seattle Dragons vs. DC Defenders (Feb. 8), the West Final (April 19), the XFL Championship (April 26) and weekly Saturday games on ABC in 2020.
Play-by-play voice Tom Hart, analyst Joey Galloway, and field analyst Pat McAfee will call weekly Sunday games on ESPN and ABC, beginning with the St. Louis BattleHawks vs. Dallas Renegades (Feb. 9, ESPN).
ESPN coordinating producer Bill Bonnell, who produces ABC's Saturday Night Football and the College Football National Championship, will oversee ABC/ESPN's overall XFL production. Bonnell was NBC's senior coordinating producer in charge of production of the original XFL in 2001, which introduced a variety of innovations that were later adopted by other football broadcasts, including the full-time use of Skycam, enhanced audio and cameras on the field. Weekly XFL games will be produced by ESPN producers Josh Hoffman (Saturdays) and Mandy Cohen (Sundays)
LaPhonso Ellis has joined College GameDay Covered by State Farm, with host Rece Davis and analysts Jay Bilas and Seth Greenberg. Ellis joins the traveling pregame show as analyst Jay Williams transitions into a new role on NBA Countdown.
New additions to the roster include analyst Jon Crispin, former Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew, former Fairfield head coach Sydney Johnson, Baylor standout King McClure, and Women's Basketball Hall of Fame member, Olympic Gold medalist, and national champion Andrea Lloyd. New ACCN commentators include Duke great and WNBA champion Alana Beard, Dan Bonner, Carlos Boozer, Kelly Gramlich, Luke Hancock, Monica McNutt, and Chelsea Sh
North America Stories
02/04/2026
HBO and NFL Films have announced Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Seattle Sea...
02/04/2026
Haivision has announced the Makito ONE, a single-blade video encoding and decoding platform, at NAB Show 2026. The platform combines dual-channel video encoding...
02/04/2026
Telestream has introduced UP.Lens, a cloud-based multiviewer and monitoring serv...
02/04/2026
Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C5220, April 19-22, Las Vegas Convention Center), marking the company's 60th anniver...
02/04/2026
Net Insight has introduced programmable Trust Boundaries, a feature integrated i...
02/04/2026
Bitmovin has announced support for SGAI (Server-Guided Ad Insertion) in its playback products, using HLS interstitials. SGAI combines elements of client-side an...
02/04/2026
Riedel Communications' SimplyLive RiMotion R12 replay system is supporting B...
02/04/2026
LTN, a managed IP video transport company, and Ateme, a video compression and de...
02/04/2026
Harmonic has announced that TDF, a broadcast infrastructure operator in France, has deployed Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor and ProStream X Video S...
02/04/2026
Eluvio and the United Rugby Championship (URC) have announced first-year results...
02/04/2026
The Kansas City Current and Scripps Sports have announced that ION will broadcas...
02/04/2026
ESPN will debut Courtside at the Women's Final Four Presented by AT&T, an alt-cast airing Friday, April 3 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2, and Sunday, A...
02/04/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated are ...
02/04/2026
ESPN's MegaCast Coverage of 2026 NCAA Women's Final Four Begins Friday, ...
02/04/2026
DAZN has announced the launch of DAZN Playmakers, a global influencer program designed to build a network of sports content creators. The programme will give cr...
02/04/2026
Tony Cole, Jessica Lee shift into new roles reporting to ESPN SVP/Content Operations Chris Calcinari....
02/04/2026
Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...
02/04/2026
Real-time tracking, virtual production, and Pixar storytelling converge for Apri...
02/04/2026
NASA's long-awaited Artemis II mission has launched four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the moon, marking the first manned launch toward the moon sin...
02/04/2026
(L-R) Molly Belle Wright, Wyatt Solis, and John Magaro appear in Omaha by Cole Webley, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo courte...
02/04/2026
L3Harris has successfully powered the historic launch of the Artemis II mission, providing propulsion and avionics....
02/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/04/2026
Already deployed extensively by NBC Sports, FOR-A Corporation will demonstrate GoVertical! AiDi, the real-time 9:16 autocropping feature of viztrick AiDi, durin...
02/04/2026
Interra Systems, a provider of end-to-end quality assurance solutions for the digital media industry, announced that Elite Media Technologies has selected its B...
02/04/2026
Harmonic's Media Processing Solutions Maximize Bandwidth Efficiency for Terrestrial Broadcast Delivery
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that TDF, a...
02/04/2026
NBC Sports Deploys viztrick AiDi to Stream Live Events in 9:16 Mobile-First Formats with Auto Tracking, Development Signals Strategic Shift for FOR-A
Long reco...
02/04/2026
Evergent will showcase new innovations in subscriber lifecycle management and monetization at NAB Show 2026 (Las Vegas, April 18 22), including:
New advances i...
02/04/2026
Riedel Communications is proud to be part of Binghamton University, State University of New York, Athletics' milestone year, celebrating the university'...
02/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media and Techex have today announced new, fully managed, cloud-native Master Control services designed to meet the growing operational demand...
02/04/2026
Avid today announced it will showcase new innovations designed to help media companies win in the new media economy at NAB Show 2026 (April 18 22, Las Vegas Co...
02/04/2026
PlayBox Neo helps AIS PLAY kick-off premier football content direct to fans
PlayBox Neo has provided MIMO Tech with a brand-new major installation to extend it...
02/04/2026
Globo has transitioned its primary content distribution to Secure Reliable Transport over a fully IP-based managed backbone using Synamedia's Quortex PowerV...
02/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/04/2026
Student Spotlight: Al-Fadl Salem The Danish singer recently performed for the queen of Denmark.
April 1, 2026
By
Editorial Staff
Image by Junia Morrow
Wh...
02/04/2026
Taku Hirano's Career Is Defined by Identity Whether he's performing, composing, teaching, or developing instruments, the do-it-all percussionist sees ...
02/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils Official Trailer for The Trials of Winnie Mandela
Entertainment
02 April 2026
GlobalSouth Africa
Link copied to clipboard
...
02/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Announces Start of Production and New Cast for Second ...
02/04/2026
Back to All News
The Trailer for Ronaldinho: The One and Only Features Never-Be...
02/04/2026
GoVertical! AiDi Powers Real-Time 9:16 Autocropping for Immediate Streaming to M...
02/04/2026
By Lance Maurer, CEO
Image generated by AI
Engineering is supposed to be fun....
02/04/2026
No joke - GFN Thursday is skipping the tricks and heading straight into the games. April kicks off with ten new titles, bringing fresh adventures to GeForce NOW...
01/04/2026
As sports media organization continue to seek out new ways to streamline their p...
01/04/2026
The SVG GFX Forum hit New York City earlier this month for a day packed with sessions focused on the creative strategy and technology behind today's cutting...
01/04/2026
Green Hippo is excited to announce the launch of its new Hippotizer Media Server training courses at Pixel Academy, a purpose built AV learning hub combining ha...
01/04/2026
TAG Video Systems, a global leader in IP-native broadcast monitoring, multiviewing, and quality control, today announced a collaboration with Oracle Cloud Infra...
01/04/2026
Professional Wireless Systems (PWS), a leading provider of wireless audio solutions and RF management, was on site at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, wher...
01/04/2026
AgileTV, a leading provider of end-to-end TV technology solutions, has deployed next , the new IPTV platform of the Austrian telco LIWEST, marking the first st...
01/04/2026
LTN, a leader in fully managed IP video transport, and Ateme, a global leader in video compression and delivery solutions, today announced a collaboration integ...