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From the outside, Maria Taylor’s 2021 transition from ESPN to NBC was nothing short of dramatic.
Since joining the network in 2014, the basketball and football host, analyst, and sideline reporter had covered the NBA Finals, college football, women’s college basketball, and the NFL draft. But in the final year of Taylor’s contract at ESPN, audio leaked from a conversation a year earlier in which colleague Rachel Nichols said ESPN chose Taylor over her to host the NBA Finals because the company was “feeling pressure” on diversity. The comments sparked public outrage and drama behind the scenes at ESPN. Taylor’s contract with ESPN ended, and she quickly signed with NBC.
But speaking years later at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit in New York, Taylor didn’t frame her departure from the Worldwide Leader as an escape hatch or a messy breakup. She saw it as a key moment in reframing her approach to her career.
“I felt like up until that point, I’ve always followed the lead, like whatever you offer, I was just going to take it,” Taylor said. “For the first time I got to sit back and be like, ‘I want to be the leader of my sports broadcasting career,’ and make decisions, say yes to the things that I really want to say yes to, make sure that it’s aligning with everything that I want for my whole entire life.”
The basketball and football payoff wasn’t immediate for Taylor. The NBA is making its return to NBC in 2025 with Taylor as its lead studio host, but was far from guaranteed in 2021. And while hosting “Football Night in America” was eventually the goal, she spent her first season as a contributor before Al Michaels stepped down and was replaced by then-host Mike Tirico.
“You do get to a point where, again, you’re trying to be more decisive, and you’re trying not to grind anymore, you want to mine deep,” Taylor said.
The studio host said she also came in with different priorities. Conversations with NBC geared toward family, work-life balance, and taking more time between events. Taylor knew she wanted to prioritize becoming a mother through IVF.
“It’s not a step back, I was just moving differently,” Taylor said. “I was still moving forward, it’s just, I’m moving differently, and that’s what led me to the decision to come over to NBC.”
