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Nearly one year ago, broadcaster Elle Duncan left a prominent role at ESPN, where she hosted SportsCenter and led coverage in women’s college basketball, and the WNBA for a new opportunity at Netflix as its lead on-air host and sportscaster. One year later, she’s pleased with the network’s progress.
“Netflix made no qualms about the challenge ahead if I decided to take the opportunity,” Duncan said at Front Office Sports Tuned In summit on Tuesday afternoon. “They were building the plane as they were flying it, and so there are challenges, there are wrinkles, but I think what’s really cool is just the pride. I’m so proud of this team.
“Netflix is being held to the same standards as these legacy media companies that have been around for 50 years, but they’re doing it with a lot less experience and a very small but mighty crew,” said Duncan, whose duties span live sports and other cultural events.
Duncan’s Netflix debut was on Jan. 23 of this year when American climber Alex Honnold successfully scaled Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taiwan (1,667-feet high) without any protective gear. Duncan said the preparation included a contingency phone call about how to manage a situation on-air should Honnold had fallen and injured himself.
While a different experience than any other in her career, it encapsulated why Duncan made the move.
“I don’t want to act like what I did at ESPN wasn’t challenging because it certainly was,” Duncan told Front Office Sports’s Baker Machado. “It’s the worldwide leader. I think that for me, it was really about the challenge of doing some of these really interesting and unique projects that I never would have had an opportunity to do before.
“I went from doing domestic television to doing global television.”
Netflix had only done a handful of live events prior to Duncan, and since have broadcasted the MLB Home Run Derby and the NFL’s kickoff game in Australia, and have rights to future events including the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Conversely, where ESPN is a daily sports vertical, Netflix has opted to prioritize individual, big moments. It’s a strategy that Duncan continues to see evolve.
“It was a big part of what pulled me to come over there,” Duncan said. “Everything that they’re looking at is curated. Can we eventize it? Can we put a little extra funk on it? Can we make it a little bit different? Can it be buzzy? And that’s kind of their approach. I always love the text message that I get from our [vice president of global live sports and entertainment] Gabe Spitzer or [director of live sports] Kate Jackson that’s like, ‘here’s what we got now,’ because it’s always something out of left field and really interesting.”
As her one-year anniversary at Netflix approaches in December, Duncan hopes to build a legacy that compares to notable names from her former employer.
“I hope when I look back five years [from now], it will be the same feeling that Chris Berman has when he thinks of ESPN,” Duncan said. “And the pride that he has when he thinks about what he helped build. Netflix Sports is going to be around long after me, but I would love to know that the trust they put into me was rewarded.”
