Messages of Motivation & Empowerment
Veteran broadcast journalist Cari Champion is renowned for getting to the heart and soul of issues, sharing a message of motivation and empowerment that is making a difference. As the Founder of Brown Girls Dream, Champion knows first-hand the impact of meaningful support and mentorship, and shares insights about finding your passion, staying inspired, and achieving your dreams.
Overcoming Adversity and Persevering in Work & Life
Multimedia game-changer and veteran broadcast journalist Cari Champion has worked at the highest levels, overcoming personal and professional adversity to rise to the top of her field. Highly regarded for her courageous and authentic approach to discussing important issues, Champion shares takeaways about how to cultivate perseverance and invest in your dreams and yourself.
Diversity and Representation in Media
Inspired by the unfair representation she saw on TV growing up, veteran broadcast journalist Cari Champion embarked on a powerhouse career covering stories for major networks with an eye to diversity and equity. With her unique perspective and unparalleled insights, Champion is an advocate for making space for marginalized voices in storytelling, and making a difference.
Women in the World of Sports
Veteran sports anchor and broadcast journalist Cari Champion spent over ten years at ESPN covering nationally important sports stories, rising to the top of her field in the male-dominated worlds of sports and media. Champion shares her journey creating her own path, finding support and mentorship that were essential to her early career success, and the challenges and opportunities for women in the world of sports.
Cari Champion: Moderator and Host
As a veteran broadcast journalist, Cari Champion is an expert at getting to the heart and soul of the story, and making the opportunity for guests to from all industries to reveal impactful insights. Champion deftly navigates the important conversations of the day, bringing her trademark authenticity, humor, and depth. She makes a fantastic choice for your next virtual or in-person event.
Cari Champion hosts the Naked with Cari Champion Podcast, showcasing her moderating and interviewing skills as she speaks vulnerably with some of today’s greatest names in sports and entertainment
Sports anchor, journalist, and host CARI CHAMPION showcases her moderating and interviewing skills as the host of the Naked with Cari Champion podcast. Champion speaks with some of the biggest names in today’s sports and entertainment world, and asks them to “get naked” by describing life-altering circumstances and events that helped shape who they are. She brings out the best in people as a professional interviewer, getting them to share the most interesting bits and information they might not share with someone else. In a world in which we show the best sides of ourselves on social media and in the news, Champion creates an environment in which celebrities are authentic and honest about their untold stories, the way they want to tell them. Just like on her podcast, Champion is a skilled interviewer and moderator at events, guiding intriguing conversations as she puts guests at ease and helps them share answers audiences want to hear.
Listen to Cari’s podcast here > >
Virtual Programming: Cari Champion makes history with her move to Vice TV, working alongside co-host Jemele Hill, as the first Black women to host a late-night cable show: Cari & Jemele: Stick to Sports.
CARI CHAMPION has worked across the country covering network news, entertainment, and sports stories of national interest for ABC, CBS, NBC and other cable networks. Champion worked as anchor, sports journalist, and host and spent nearly a decade at ESPN where she served as a SportsCenter anchor and host of ESPN2’s First Take. Most recently, Champion made history with her move to Vice TV, working alongside co-host Jemele Hill, as the first Black women to host a late-night cable show. Cari & Jemele: Stick to Sports deliver their unique, engaging, and comedic perspectives on today's issues. An entertaining and emboldened communicator, Champion has done features for The Insider, Hollywood 411 and Starz Entertainment. In her energizing and uplifting talks, at virtual and in-person events, Cari empowers audiences worldwide with a unique perspective and thoughts on women in the male-dominated world of sports, race, and ethnicity in both sports and media, how to overcome personal and professional adversity.
As a broadcast journalist and television personality, Cari Champion has revolutionized and pioneered the sports media industry for women today.
Champion previously served as anchor and host at ESPN where she spent nearly a decade in roles that included co-hosting SportsCenter’s Coast to Coast, host of SportsNation, and moderator of ESPN’s popular debate talk show, First Take. In 2020, Champion made history on Vice TV on her show Cari & Jemele: Stick to Sports, along with co-host Jemele Hill, in becoming the first Black woman to host a late-night cable news and information show.
For TNT, Champion hosted the studio show The Arena, where she contributed to the network’s storytelling franchise created to provide a thought-provoking forum for provocative topics from the most popular voices in sports. She joins Amazon for their new Thursday Night Football coverage as the host of a livestream on Twitch.
Never missing a beat within the hottest moments in sports and culture, Champion served as a co-anchor for Tokyo Tonight during the 2020 Olympic Games and recently hosted the 2021 SI (Sports Illustrated) Awards alongside DJ Khaled in which Tom Brady and Billie Jean King were honored with the “SportsPerson of the Year” award and “Muhammed Ali Legacy” award respectively.
Champion doesn’t just stick to sports—she’s a leading voice in all aspects of entertainment. She recently returned as a co-host for Season 2 of NBC’s reality competition series, The Titan Games, created and presented by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
With her limitless influence across all mediums, listeners enthusiastically tune into Champion on her Naked with Cari Champion podcast presented by iHeartMedia. Launched in the Summer of 2021, the podcast showcases an authentic interview style that brings refreshing and nuanced conversations to the forefront from thought-leaders and culture-shifters within the entertainment industry. As a mentor and leader, Cari continues to break barriers while paving the way for younger women of color who desire to pursue a career in sports television and other areas within broadcasting with her foundation Brown Girls Dream.
What’s next? Just announced, Champion and Jemele Hill are joining CNN+ as hosts of a weekly show on the much-anticipated streaming subscription service debuting spring 2022.
Before joining ESPN, Champion served as an anchor and courtside reporter for the Tennis Channel. She currently lives in Los, Angeles, CA where she enjoys sipping wine and practicing yoga!