Behind the Mic: Prime Video Taps Charissa Thompson as Host of Thursday Night Football; ESPN.com Names Five Soccer Journalists for Coverage of UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 in England

Behind the Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, Prime Video names Charissa Thompson as host of Thursday Night Football, ESPN.com names five soccer journalists for UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 in England, and more.

Charissa Thompson Names Host of TNF on Prime Video

The formation of Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football team continues to advance, as the streamer announced today that Charissa Thompson will host its NFL pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage. Thompson will anchor Prime Video’s wraparound coverage alongside Tony Gonzalez, Richard Sherman, and Ryan Fitzpatrick, live and on-site at each TNF matchup throughout the season. In addition to her Thursday Night Football role with Prime Video, Thompson will retain her Fox NFL Kickoff hosting duties each Sunday, where she previously worked alongside Gonzalez for three seasons.

While developing into one of the top hosts in sports television, Thompson excelled through a series of high-profile roles at Fox Sports, ESPN, and Extra, among others. She is an established NFL expert and a skilled host, as comfortable anchoring live coverage at major sporting events as she is covering A-List celebrities. The Seattle native attended U.C. Santa Barbara before launching her on-air career at Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain.

Thompson joins an expanding roster of Prime Video Thursday Night Football on-air talent that also includes legendary play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and five-time Emmy-winning analyst Kirk Herbstreit. Fred Gaudelli, producer of seven Super Bowls and a recent inductee into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, will serve as the executive producer of Thursday Night Football’s game coverage. Multi-Emmy-award-winners Mike Muriano and Spoon Daftary are the executive and senior coordinating producers of Thursday Night Football’s pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage.

ESPN.com Names Five Soccer Journalists for Coverage of UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 in England

ESPN soccer news and information hub has announced the five top sports journalists assigned to cover the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 in England leading up to and through the competition Wednesday, July 6 – Sunday, July 31 in England. The reporters, Tom Hamilton, Sophie Lawson, Kathleen McNamee, Mark Ogden, and James Olley, are all based in England.

During the tournament, they will be on the ground across 10 English match sites providing match previews, up-to-the-minute reports, post-match analysis, and commentary, for the industry-leading soccer news and information hub. The UEFA Women’s EUROs page.

ESPN.com’s coverage of the quadrennial tournament and the live matches on linear and digital streaming platforms will make UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 the most expansive content commitment for an international women’s soccer competition, without a US team, across The Walt Disney Company. ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN+ will combine to carry all 31 matches live.

ESPN.com’s 2022 UEFA EURO reporters:

Tom Hamilton joined ESPN in 2011 as part of their rugby team but moved into an all-sport senior writer role in 2016 following the Rio Olympics. Hamilton has also covered several events for ESPN, including the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, Wimbledon Championships, French Open, the Ryder Cup, the British and Irish Lions tours, and Rugby World Cup. During the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, he covered the England national team through its semifinal exit.

Sophie Lawson is a women’s soccer journalist specializing in all levels of the sport. Lawson has journeyed to locations as far-flung as the Northwestern Romanian city of Cluj, the Faroe Islands, and Rotherham to report on the club and international soccer. Lawson’s reporting has included coverage of South Korean WK League and the Ukrainian national team as a versatile journalist.

Kathleen McNamee joined ESPN in late 2019 after finishing a law degree. The London-based sports journalist primarily covers soccer. She also reports on tennis, golf, rugby, athletics, and other sports. The highlight of McNamee’s ESPN career was the 2021 Wimbledon Championship. She has appeared on ESPNPlus’ Futbol Americas, and has conducted exclusive interviews with many top women soccer players.

Mark Ogden is a senior writer with ESPN responsible for breaking and analyzing the biggest stories in soccer. Since joining ESPN from the Telegraph in 2016, he has covered every marquee event in the sport – FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Football Championship, UEFA Champions League, FA Cup – including the non-league Dover Athletic. Ogden is a recurring contributor to ESPN FC, the daily soccer news and information studio show on ESPN+.

James Olley is a senior writer for ESPN covering London’s most prominent Premier League clubs – Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United – and the England Men’s National Team for ESPN FC. James received the Society of Editors’ Sports News Story of the Year and SJA British Sports Journalism awards for breaking the story and enterprise reporting about the Wembley for Sale news.

FOX Sports Welcomes Jacqui Oatley as New FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Play-By-Play Announcer

FOX Sports, America’s English-language home for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, has announced renowned soccer commentator Jacqui Oatley will join the network’s FIFA World Cup broadcast team as a new play-by-play announcer for this year’s tournament.

Oatley brings a wealth of FIFA World Cup experience to FOX Sports’ play-by-play roster. She spent summer 2019 in France calling FIFA World Cup matches for the host broadcaster’s world feed. In 2018, she served as a host for ITV’s FIFA World Cup coverage in Russia. Oatley also hosted the BBC’s 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup coverage in Canada and provided play-by-play commentary for BBC Radio 5 Live on several matches at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Oatley is widely heralded for her 20 years in broadcasting and making history as a soccer commentator. In 2005, she became the first woman to call a match on British network radio and she continued making history in 2007 when she became the first female commentator on the BBC One’s flagship show, Match of the Day. Most recently, she has commentated on the UEFA Champions League and is currently lead play-by-play announcer for Sky Sports’ Barclays FA Women’s Super League coverage. She also calls Premier League matches for Sky Sports and the world feed.

Oatley joins returning lead play-by-play announcer John Strong as FOX Sports commentators for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. New and returning broadcasters joining FOX Sports at this year’s World Cup will be unveiled in the coming weeks.

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