Former ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols has been hired by Showtime.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Nichols is joining Showtime Basketball, where she will serve as host and producer for multiple programs.
“I’ve been so fortunate to live my dream job alongside some of the best journalists in the business for more than 25 years, and this new development deal with Showtime Sports gives me my most broad playing field yet,” said Nichols in a statement. “They’ve asked me to produce, create and host new sports programming across platforms, working alongside Hall of Famers, multiple guys with championship rings and an uber-creative team behind the camera. We’re going to have so much fun.”
The news arrives more than a year after the New York Times shared leaked audio of Nichols making controversial comments regarding ESPN’s “crappy longtime record on diversity.”
“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world—she covers football, she covers basketball,” Nichols said in the conversation, which leaked in July 2021. “If you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity—which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it—like, go for it. Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away.”
Shortly after audio of the conversation circulated online, Nichols issued a public apology and she was removed from NBA Finals coverage. She said she was “deeply, deeply sorry” for what she said.
Back in January, Nichols, who had one year remaining on her contract with ESPN, officially left the network after both sides reached a settlement agreement for the reporter to pursue other opportunities.
