‘Don’t talk and be happy you are there’: Ex-ESPN anchor Cari Champion claims executives made it clear ‘she did not matter’ as a black woman on First Take
- Cari Champion, 47, moderated the show First Take with Skip Bayless and Stephan A. Smith between 2012 to 2105
- During her audition for the weekly show, she said she felt the network wanted to hire a ‘blonde’ woman not a brown-skinned black girl
- She said they told her: ‘Just be happy that you’re here. Ask questions. Don’t talk’
Ex-ESPN host Cari Champion has said executives made it clear ‘she did not matter’ as a black woman during her three-year stint at the network.
The 47-year-old moderated the show First Take with Skip Bayless and Stephan A. Smith between 2012 to 2105 on the sports channel.
The broadcaster shared her experience revealing details about her departure from the sports network during Monday’s episode: I Am Athlete.
Champion suspected the network wanted to hire a ‘blonde’ woman not a brown-skinned black girl, but once she got the job she was elated.
But she blasted the allegedly toxic management style she experienced during a time when a black woman hosting a weekly daytime show was rare.
She said the network was just like, ‘Just be happy that you’re here. Ask questions. Don’t talk.’
Champion served as a moderator on the sports program, First Take, from 2012-2015 alongside Skip Bayless and Stephan A. Smith.
Champion told the I Am Athlete podcast she went into the audition ‘knowing they already wanted a blonde, cause this is Monday through Friday on a popular show,’ she said.
‘You’re not gonna hire a Black girl, especially not a brown-skinned Black girl. You’re not hiring me. Right. That’s how I went in,’ she said during the Monday interview.
The broadcaster said when she was hired on the show, ESPN executives downplayed her role.
She said, in part: ‘I know it’s a big deal, but they don’t tell me it’s a big deal cause they don’t want me to be nervous. They act like it’s no big,’ she continued.
The broadcaster shared her experience revealing details about her departure from the sports network during Monday’s episode: I Am Athlete. Pictured: First Take
At the time of her hiring, she admitted she was she was ‘completely naive’ but also said that she didn’t feel like ‘I had to dumb myself down.
Of Bayless and Smith, she said: ‘They’re super talented, they worked hard. They taught me work ethic.’
Champion explained some of the issues she dealt with was within the show’s upper management, and how they treated her as a Black woman in that position.
She said: ‘We can do the research — Nobody was Monday through Friday on a popular two hour TV show, that was a Black woman at the time.’
Champion suspected the network wanted to hire a ‘blonde’ woman not a brown-skinned black girl, but once she got the job she was elated. Pictured: ESPN’s old HQ
She continued: ‘And they just, you know, they let me know I didn’t matter, you know, and whatever intentionally, unintentionally it was, it was obvious. It was just like, ‘You don’t matter.
She added: Just be happy that you’re here. Ask questions. Don’t talk. Be happy that you’re here.’
Since ditching ESPN, Champion has had a show on Vice TV called Disruptors with Jemele Hill and Cari Champion.
They were also meant to team up again on CNN + before the streaming service flopped and was pulled.