ABC7’s Britt McHenry Hired by ESPN
Image courtesy of Facebook.com/britt.mchenry.7
On Wednesday ESPN announced the hire of Britt McHenry, a sports reporter from WJLA-TV and NewsChannel 8, ABC7 Washington. She’s just the latest talent snagged out of D.C. by a major network—ESPN’s Lindsay Czarniak and NFL Network’s Amber Theoharis both got their starts at NBC4 Washington.
A graduate of Northwestern’s prestigious Medill School of Journalism, where she earned her master’s degree, McHenry began as a community reporter for NewsChannel 8—she received her undergraduate degree from Stetson University. More recently at a sports reporter McHenry’s covered the Super Bowl and the NCCA Men’s Tournament for ABC7, as well as hosting a local high school sports show.
McHenry’s deal with a network outside the nation’s capital has been in the works for sometime now. Though it’s unknown exactly when negotiations began, MediaBistro first reported she was “eyeing†an exit at WJLA on January 27th. According to their “little birdy,†McHenry’s deal may have been delayed because of a not yet expired contract in place with ABC7.
With the high profile exits of Erin Andrews and Michelle Beadle from ESPN in 2012, McHenry has been one of the most buzzed about potential replacements. She may not have been an immediate replacement—Beadle actually beat her back to the network by a few weeks—but those buzzing about McHenry were obviously on the right track.
At this point, McHenry’s full role at ESPN is still unclear. She’s expected to work as a national reporter for the network, but one based out of DC, rather than the network’s home base in Bristol, Conn. Although more specific details regarding her role at the network will likely be included in the Tuesday release.
On Monday night at 11:19 PM, McHenry tweeted out the following:
Screen capture image courtesy of @BrittMcHenry
There was nothing official accompanying that tweet, but the fact that she’s packing up her desk is more than a little telling. It’s hard to imagine McHenry would mention something like that publicly to her 18K followers—vague as it is—without a solid deal in place and another job secured.
As a DC resident, I follow McHenry on Twitter and have long suspected she may be on the move. Maybe I just have a sixth sense about this sort of thing, or maybe I’ve just seen enough local sports talent pull the ripcord in recent years, evacuating for national jobs.
In addition to Czarniak and Theoharis, NBC4’s Dan Hellie and Hakem Dermish have both ditched DC—Hellie for NFL Network and Dermish for ESPN.
Czarniak’s star, particularly, has continued to rise since being hired by ESPN in June 2011. While she began as just a fill in personality across the network’s broad platform, she has since found place as a primetime SportsCenter anchor alongside John Anderson.
Though a temporary primetime shakeup is in the works, as Czarniak is set to give birth to her first child any moment now. There’s no chance McHenry will be thrown into a pool that deep in the near future, but the opportunities for her at ESPN are endless.
