At least in the United States, when broadcasting men’s sports, they tend to have two men doing the announcing-- one the play-by-play, and the other the color commentary-- and if they have a woman at all, which isn’t always the case, she’s doing the sideline reporting and talking about injuries every so often, and we don’t hear from her very much.
What’s up with that? Or is it just my imagination?
I mean, are you looking for an explanation beyond sexist stereotypes?
The sideline reporter needs to interrupt players/coaches to get them to talk. A hot woman is more likely to be successful in this task?
But she doesn’t know much herself. For deep analysis and discussion (including math!), of course we need Men.
It’s not just you. It is a thing.
It’s mostly a couple things - development pipeline and opportunity.
It goes without saying that historically there have been limited development opportunities for women to be in the broadcast booth, so that limited the pool until quite recently. But even now with a fair few qualified candidates, there’s still only a few spots available and there’s still more than a little institutionalized sexism involved.
It’s a bit better among college football announcers, where there’s more opportunities due to the sheer number of games, but even there, the very best female announcers/commentary (who are vastly better than the majority of announcers - especially former players trying things out) have limited opportunities.
Good old fashioned sexism. The touchline reporting is the fluff bit, not the serious commentary. Hence, one for the girls.
I’m grateful to see it changing a lot in recent years in the UK - a few of our biggest lead sports presenters are women. But there’s still a way to go.
It’s changing a bit. Melanie Newman is the lead play-by-play announcer for Apple TV Friday night baseball.
Orla Chennaoui who hosts cycling (in studio) for Eurosport is also excellent. While we have Brad Wiggins doing the equivalent of the sideline reporter job trying to look pretty while chasing the peloton around on the back of a motorbike.
Baseball has moved away from that setup. Lots of local teams now have a woman in the broadcast booth for the local TV. ESPN had women doing the main Sunday Night Baseball a few years ago.
American football still uses the play-by-play man, the color man, and the female sideline reporter.
Islanders hockey sometimes has AJ Mleczko in the booth and she’s excellent. All you need is a gold and silver Olympic medal, so silver world medals and you’re qualified to backup the main color commentator.
I did a double take on that, given the diversity theme.
In many cases, color commentary and play by play announcers are people who have considerable firsthand experience in the sport, such as being a former player or coach. i.e., Madden, Romo, Aikman, Collinsworth, etc.
There are no women who have played in the NBA, NFL, etc. so they are typically in the role of sideline reporter. But for sports like Team USA women’s national soccer team playing in the women’s FIFA World Cup, you often do end up with former women’s soccer players doing commentary.
For the NFL, this is generally only true for the color commentary, not the play by play.
CBS at least has Beth Mowins for the play by play but could have more.
And, if we’re being honest, NFL color commentary except for the top 1-2 teams at each network is not all that great
And the less we speak of ARod on ESPN for color commentary, the better, though he’s pretty decent in the studio
Sadly, I think the whole sexism thing is at the root of it. The networks are probably under considerable pressure to diversify their teams, but the conditions @Velocity mentions are also present, so what do they do? Put a talented, yet attractive, female on the sidelines to capture what’s going-on on the field - sure some people are paying attention to what she has to say, but others are not listening at all. At the same time, you got scantily-clad Carrie Underwood shaking her tush for the opening of Sunday Night Football. Which is it?: are women treated as professionals just doing their job best they can, or are they to be objectified? I don’t think the networks really know what to do in this space.
The other aspect - which I don’t have a cite for, other than online comments made by many fans, and which may also be sexist - is that many fans don’t like the sound of (some) women’s voices in a loud, excited context. Hearing a man use a strong, loud voice, “Burrow going deep, he’s got Chase open, 20, 10, TOUCHDOWN!” is one thing, but when (some) women do it, it comes across as shrill to their ears.
Moreso the role of color commentator (which is the broadcast role that the men you mention play/played). Typically (but not always), the play-by-play announcer is an announcer by trade, who often works in several sports.
Joe Buck, for example, who had been Aikman’s longtime partner on Fox NFL broadcasts, also did play-by-play for Fox’s MLB coverage; Buck likely got into broadcasting, in part, because his father, Jack Buck, was a respected sports announcer, but Joe never played pro ball, and he started broadcasting while he was in college.
That said, examples of well-known play-by-play announcers, who came from playing backgrounds, include Frank Gifford and Pat Summerall, both of whom played for the New York (Football) Giants in the 1950s.
That would only be an acceptable explanation if having experience playing the sport was a universal. But there are plenty of men who have never played professional sports but have been hired to announce games from the booth; Joe Buck, Howard Cosell, Bob Costas, Curt Gowdy, Al Michaels, and Mike Tirico are some examples.
Right; see my reply above yours. Play-by-play announcers tend to be career announcers (with some exceptions); color commentators tend to be former players or coaches.
Horse racing channels have had women handicapping for some time now, but yeah, it’s always a woman sticking her mic into the face of a jockey or trainer.
I’ve never heard a woman calling a race, either.
We were watching the women’s Euro England-Norway match last night (about which - holy shit) and Logan was basically leading the commentary with Ian Wright, Alex Jones (who hasn’t quite mastered the art of getting a word in edgewise when Wright is blathering on yet) and some other foreign guy whose name I’ve forgotten.
On a side note we did have a bit of a laugh when they brought Fara Williams on to do some sideline commentary, and they put up her England stats (172 caps, 40 goals) right after they’d done Ian Wright’s (36 caps, 9 goals).