Whenever I think of the phrase “studio host” as it relates to the best in sports, I think about someone who is ego-free on the air. Of the modern sports studio hosts, James Brown, Ernie Johnson and Curt Menefee highlight this trait on nearly every broadcast. They make the production about the people around them. It can be a cliche in television circles, but they are “pass-first point guards.” They celebrate when others have success.

Then there are studio hosts who are simply so knowledgeable and prepared on their topic that their intellect carries the day. Bob Costas, Rece Davis, Kate Scott (formerly Abdo), Rebecca Lowe (and others) would fall under this category.

There are those who host with enthusiasm and energy. They make the production fun. Scott Hanson would be an example.

As with our most impactful play-by-play voices of the 21st century list, the list below is entirely subjective. Let me repeat that again: It is subjective. It is also not ranked. The value set I used was (1) hosting shows featuring mass audiences and (2) the professionalism, preparation and (my subjective) quality of a broadcaster.

There are plenty of deserving names that have a case to make the list and would have been on other lists, including Malika Andrews, Michelle Beadle, Rachel Nichols and Sage Steele, all of whom provided ESPN with professionalism as NBA Finals hosts. Mike Hill has done excellent work for ESPN and Fox Sports on any sport he’s been assigned.

Andrew Siciliano was great on the NFL Sunday Ticket Red Zone, airing on DirecTV’s Red Zone Channel. Chris McKendry has been an exceptional lead for ESPN’s tennis coverage at majors. Charissa Thompson, hosting on Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” and “Fox NFL Kickoff,” defines the pass-first ethos. Elle Duncan, moving to Netflix, has done great work on ESPN’s women’s basketball coverage.

While more known for play-by-play, Kevin Burkhardt is excellent as the lead host of Fox’s MLB postseason coverage. Tim Brando is more known today as a play-by-play caller for Fox Sports, but Brando did excellent work early in the 2000s on “College Football Today” and “At The Half” studio shows at CBS.

Matt Winer has been a steady hand for Turner Sports and NBATV, whether the assignment was MLB or navigating the “Inside The NBA” crew when Ernie Johnson was not around. Adnan Virk is another host whose calling card is versatility between hosting MLB Network and NHL Network studio shows and Amazon Prime’s NHL coverage.

Greg Amsinger, Dan Hellie, Brian Kenny, Carolyn Manno, Sam Ponder, Shannon Spake and Kathryn Tappen all have an argument to be on a list of this type. It’s hard to classify golf hosts, so a shoutout to Terry Gannon, Dan Hicks, Rich Lerner and Steve Sands. (Jim Nantz made the play-by-play list, obviously.) It’s hard to narrow the list down to 25.

There are great studio hosts around the country working in local and regional markets, and they have had a massive impact on their fan bases. But when I thought of the word “impact,” I went for people with broad reach and a national audience. (Plus, I haven’t seen every local host.) At a certain point, you have to narrow these lists, so I opted to bypass those who work outside of the United States. But there are plenty of notable choices who had significant impact including David Amber and Ron MacLean of Sportsnet (Canada), Telemundo Deportes’ Andres Cantor (who fits better as a play-by-play person), James Duthie of TSN (Canada), Andi Petrillo and Scott Russell of CBC (Canada), who recently retired, and Clare Balding and Gary Lineker of the BBC, among many others.

I’m going to create a special section for Dan Patrick. Even though his main role is hosting his eponymous daily, nationally syndicated radio program, which is simulcast as a television program, Patrick co-hosted NBC’s “Football Night in America” and Olympic coverage for NBC at the 2012 London Olympics, 2014 Sochi Games and the 2016 Rio Games. His interviewing skills remain at the top of the industry.

For this list, I intentionally stayed away from studio shows that would fall under what we think of as a sports talk show. That’s an entirely separate genre to me. (I’d probably include such shows in a best sports podcast list.)

Below, my choices, listed in alphabetical order:

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Chris Berman

Years active: 2000-present
Wasn’t always my cup of tea as an on-air performer, but this is undeniable: Berman is one of ESPN’s on-air talents who has a rightful claim of making ESPN a cultural landmark in the U.S. His energy and enthusiasm for the NFL fueled ESPN’s signature pro football pregame show, “Sunday NFL Countdown,” which he hosted through 2016 (Berman started with the NFL highlight show in 1986 when it was called ESPN’s “NFL GameDay.”) His hosting resume includes serving as the primary host of the NFL Draft (through 2017), the Home Run Derby and three ABC Super Bowl pregame shows when Disney aired the game. He recently signed a contract extension through 2029 and continues to host “NFL PrimeTime” on ESPN+.

James Brown

Years active: 2000-present
The rare talent who fronted both Fox’s and CBS’s flagship NFL pregame shows (he moved from Fox to CBS in 2005). He also had a long run as the host of HBO and Showtime’s “Inside the NFL.” Away from sports, Brown has always shown an interest in news and has worked on a number of occasions on CBS’s news side, such as “CBS Sunday Morning.” He possesses what Ernie Johnson and the best studio hosts have — he makes it about his colleagues.

Bob Costas

Years active: 2000-2025
The gold standard for this list. He’s the best and most well-versed interviewer in the history of sports broadcasting, and his list of hosting since 2000 includes nine Olympic Games, “Football Night In America,” multiple Kentucky Derbys and U.S. (golf) Opens and even the 2002 NBA Finals. He did it all while bringing intelligence and journalistic chops to the screen.

Rece Davis

Years active: 2000-present
Davis has become the definitive college football host, given his role at the center of ESPN’s “College GameDay,” which he inherited from Chris Fowler in 2015. He also fronted some very big soccer tournaments, including the 2006 FIFA World Cup and the Euros in 2006 and 2020.

Rich Eisen

Years active: 2000-present
The longtime face of the NFL Network, Eisen is the best host in the history of the NFL Draft, a property he has fronted since 2006. He was the first on-air talent brought on by the NFL Network in June 2003, five months before the network’s launch in November 2003, and is at the center of the long-running “NFL GameDay Morning.”

Mike Greenberg

**Years active: 2000-present
**Greenberg has been everywhere for ESPN over the last seven years, from hosting “Get Up” and “Sunday NFL Countdown,” and fronting Thursday and Friday night NFL Draft coverage since 2021. It would be for an entirely different list, but his run on ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike, with co-host Mike Golic, would make him very high on the most impactful sports radio hosts of the 21st century.

Greg Gumbel

Years active: 2000-2023
When you saw Gumbel’s face in March, you knew it was time for March Madness. A steady and poised broadcaster, he served as the studio host for CBS’s coverage of college basketball from 2000 to 2023. His hosting work also included Super Bowl pregame shows (2013 and 2016) and “The NFL Today” for two seasons (2004 and 2005) before he moved to NFL play-by-play. He died from cancer at the age of 78 in December 2024.

Scott Hanson

Years active: 2006-present
Hanson joined NFL Media in 2006 as a national reporter but exploded into the sports zeitgeist through his hosting of “NFL RedZone,” which he has led since 2009. That whip-around show reshaped NFL viewing for the million or so people who watch each week. It is rare for a product to be as widely praised by the fans and media as “NFL RedZone” is — at least before ads were added.

Ernie Johnson

Years active: 2000-present
One of the gold standards for this position. Johnson has hosted “Inside The NBA” since 1990, and that makes him the host of the greatest studio show in history. He’s a regular on the CBS/Turner coverage of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament (2011-present) and even took a spin in college football from 2001 to 2005 as the host of TBS’ “Saturday Night College Football.”

Suzy Kolber

Years active: 2000-2023
One of the primary NFL voices at ESPN for multiple decades with prominent sideline assignments, Kolber hosted ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown” pregame show from 2015 to 2022, as well as ESPN’s year-round “NFL Live.” Away from the NFL, you could find her hosting ESPN’s coverage at the French Open and Wimbledon, and Triple Crown horse racing events and prerace NASCAR shows on ABC. Hers was a rough layoff in 2023.

Rebecca Lowe

Years active: 2000-present
Lowe is the host of NBC Sports’ Premier League coverage, and her shows (“Premier League Mornings” and “Premier League Live”) helped redefine the soccer studio show in the U.S. She joined NBC Sports in 2013 and relocated from the U.K. for the position. Lowe has since hosted the Olympics for NBC from Sochi through Paris and would be on any short list for the best working studio host today. Fox added her for its World Cup coverage next year. To me, that’s Fox’s best-ever soccer hire.

Liam McHugh

Years active: 2011-present
Over 11 years at NBC, McHugh ably hosted NHL coverage through the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, five Olympics (2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020), Notre Dame football from 2012 to 2018, as well as co-hosting the 2018 Super Bowl and “Football Night in America” from 2018 to 2020. In 2022, when NBC lost its NHL rights to TNT and ESPN, he moved to TNT Sports to lead the NHL coverage there. Our Michael Russo had a nice profile of McHugh in 2023.

Curt Menefee

Years active: 2000-present
Menefee is cut from the same Ernie Johnson school of hosting — you make it about the people around you. Since 2007, he has been the full-time host of “Fox NFL Sunday,” the most-watched NFL morning pregame show for multiple decades. He has also been Fox’s primary studio host for five Super Bowls.

Chris Myers

Years active: 2000-present
A Swiss Army knife with an incredible career between hosting, play-by-play and sideline work, Myers is an inaugural member of the Fox NASCAR on-air team that debuted in 2001. He has hosted the network’s NASCAR Cup Series race and prerace coverage live from the race track each weekend since 2001. Before 2000, he had a great 11-year career at ESPN, which included one of the most famous interviews that the company ever did — a 1998 “Up Close” interview with O.J. Simpson.

Kevin Negandhi

Years active: 2006-present
A longtime “SportsCenter” staple, Negandhi has hosted the ESPN on ABC college football studio group since 2017 with intelligence and enthusiasm. His hosting work includes “NFL Live,” “Baseball Tonight,” “Outside the Lines,” “College Football Live,” “NBA Tonight” and the women’s NCAA basketball Final Four.

Karl Ravech

Years active: 2000-present
Though most today know him as the voice of ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball,” Ravech was an ace hosting ESPN’s MLB studio and pregame show, “Baseball Tonight.” He has also been the voice of ESPN’s Home Run Derby telecast since 2017.

Dave Revsine

Years active: 2000-present
After a decade at ESPN, where he did quality hosting, Revsine made the leap in 2007 to join the Big Ten Network as its lead studio host. That was a bold move with no guarantees, and he helped build what is now the most powerful college conference network.

Laura Rutledge

Years active: 2014-present
She hosts ESPN’s year-round weekday NFL news and information show, “NFL Live,” as well as SEC Network’s live-on-site “SEC Nation,” which shows a crazy amount of dexterity if you consider how many players and teams that covers. Long term, Rutledge seems in line for “Sunday NFL Countdown” or “Monday NFL Countdown” as lead host.

Kate Scott

Years active: 2005-present
She fronts the most entertaining soccer show on American television — “Champions League Today” featuring Scott, Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards, which airs on Paramount+ and CBS. Ever since Scott landed in the States to host Fox’s coverage of the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada, she has done fantastic work. (She’s fluent in four languages, a ridiculous asset for a soccer broadcaster.) Scott (formerly Abdo) is on the short list for the best working sports host today.

Rob Stone

Years active: 2000-present
Stone made a great career move leaving ESPN in 2012, because FOX made an investment in him to use him as a lead host on high-profile properties. He’s hosted three women’s World Cups, two men’s World Cups for Fox, as well as MLS, the U.S. men’s and women’s national teams, Copa America and various other soccer tournaments. He also hosts the Saturday pregame college football show, “Big Noon Kickoff,” which has gone from low viewership to a show that caters to Big Ten fans and averaged 1.7 million viewers in 2025.

Hannah Storm

Years active: 2000-present
One of the great careers in sports broadcasting, Storm joined ESPN in 2008 and provides on-air professionalism no matter the assignment, whether Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the NBA Finals, the New York Marathon or college football. You almost forget she spent five years (2002-2007) within the confines of this timeframe at CBS News as host of “The Early Show.”

Maria Taylor

Years active: 2013-present
She just landed the lead host job for NBC’s NBA coverage and has served as a host for “Football Night In America,” “Big Ten College Countdown,” as well as a host for the Tokyo, Beijing and Paris Olympics. Over a 10-month span in 2021 and 2022, Taylor hosted the prime-time network broadcast of the NBA Finals, the Tokyo Olympic Games, the Super Bowl pregame show and the Olympics in Beijing.

Mike Tirico

Years active: 2000-present
Tirico is the rare broadcaster who has had a mass impact as both a studio host and play-by-play broadcaster. At the 2018 Winter Olympics, he took over for Costas as NBC’s prime-time Olympics host, one of the most coveted positions in sports broadcasting. He’s hosted coverage of the Kentucky Derby, golf’s U.S. Open and Open Championship, as well as “Football Night In America.” During his ESPN tenure, along with a ton of play-by-play assignments, Tirico was one of ESPN’s hosts when the company owned the FIFA World Cup rights.

Scott Van Pelt

Years active: 2000-present
He’s most known these days for his “SportsCenter” work, but he belongs on this list for his work as the main host of ESPN’s golf coverage and “Monday Night Countdown,” the pregame show for ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” which he has fronted since 2023.

Trey Wingo

Years active: 2000-present
As good a host as the NFL Draft ever had — what a foolish decision by ESPN not to find a way to keep him in that position— Wingo had an incredible run at ESPN as the long-time host of “NFL Live.” He was also part of ESPN’s golf, tennis and women’s basketball coverage and hosted “SportsCenter” for years. He’s since found post-ESPN success in digital media.