The Salaries Of The Richest Female Sports Analysts
Between the action, sports analysts are there to give fans the inside scoop. Experts in their field, sports analysts must have a vast knowledge of the game, the teams, the players and the coaches-- ready to jump in and interview the stars athletes at the drop of a hat. Even so, it's not all about sports. Analysts also need to be camera ready and have a personality that shines. These are the highest paid women in sports journalism-- see how much they make!
Molly Qerim: $500,000
Molly Qerim first rose to prominence when she took over as the moderator for ESPN's First Take. The anchor works alongside a few others we will get to later, and has helped push the show to become one of the highest-rated sports talk shows on TV.
Before landing the ESPN gig, Qerim hosted NFL AM and NFL Fantasy Live on NFL Network. She’s covered all the major sporting events like the NBA Draft and the Super Bowl during her time in the sports world. Her annual salary is $500,000 and her net worth is an estimated $3 million.
Erin Andrews: $2 Million
As one of the most successful women in sports media, Erin Andrews got her start at ESPN in 2004 after working as a freelance reporter. She covers many different sports such as hockey, basketball, baseball, but she's most known for her NFL coverage.
Currently, Andrews is the lead sideline reporter for Fox NFL. She's covered everything from the Super Bowl to the World Series and does so in a remarkable fashion. If any aspiring analysts need someone to learn from, tune into Andrews!
Charissa Thompson: $1 Million
When it comes to huge personalities, Charissa Thompson is very personable. The Fox Sports' media person has spent time with ESPN, the Big Ten Network, and GSN. She has one of the most impressive resumes in the industry.
She left ESPN and SportsNation for Fox Sports 1 and made her debut the first day the network did in 2013. Outside of sports, she's co-hosted the entertainment news show Extra and Ultimate Beastmaster. A unicorn would be the best adjective to describe her.
Cassidy Hubbarth: $200,000
Cassidy Hubbarth is one of the newer faces to grace the world of sports analytics, but she's already doing a stellar job. She worked as a host and reporter for the Big Ten Network and worked hard until she won a Southeast Emmy for her work with SEC Gridiron Live.
That was all before she got onboard with ESPN and began doing bigger broadcasts. These include NBA Tonight, First Take, Sportscenter, and many more. Hubbarth also receives a lot of love in the Chicago area, as she used to be a producer for the WMAQ NBC5 Network in the Windy City.
Leeann Tweeden: $1 Million
Leeann Tweeden is one of the more versatile talents in sports media. Tweeden is a model, sports commentator, and radio broadcaster. She took off in modeling after winning the Venus International Model Search. Winning opened up the door for her in the media industry.
She had her own Fox Sports show for six years. In 2008, Tweeden became the third hostess for NBC's Poker After Dark series. She's dabbled UFC and baseball as well during her career.
Michelle Beadle: $5 Million
Michelle Beadle joined ESPN in 2009 and has since become one of the highest-paid women in sports broadcasting. With the network, she has hosted and been a part of several shows over the years, including SportsNation.
In 2019, Beadle was given a buyout by ESPN, essentially ending her time with the network. One of her last gigs was as a co-host on Get Up!, the network's attempt at a morning show featuring Mike Greenberg. Beadle has also worked with NBC and HBO.
Rosalyn Gold-Onwude: $78,200
Rosalyn Gold-Onwude is a Stanford graduate who began gaining steam during the Golden State Warriors' 2014-15 championship year. After graduation, she worked for Tesla Motors for a while before venturing off into the sports realm for good. She's since worked with TNT and PAC-12 Network.
During her time at Stanford, she was a great player. She was great enough of a player to make the Nigerian National team too! "As a woman of color in sports broadcasting, I want to do good work and have a positive, visible influence," she said.
Pam Oliver: $1 Million
Pam Oliver has been in the game for over 30 years now. The Fox Sports staple started out bouncing around local stations for almost a decade before joining ESPN in 1993. Two years after that, she jumped ship for Fox Sports where she would be a sideline reporter alongside John Madden.
In 2005, she worked her way up to TNT and did coverage for the NBA playoffs. There really isn't anything that Oliver hasn't done during her wonderous career. She currently reports from the sideline for Fox's NFL team.
Wendi Nix: $800,000
Wendi Nix began her career in sports as a sports anchor for a local Boston network. She then went from Fox Sports Net to New England Sports Network and WPDE in South Carolina.
Now, Nix is the current co-host for ESPN's number one program, NFL Live. She's certainly come a long way and isn't far off from securing that million-dollar salary range like many other of her peers. Her primary role is to cover NFL games.
Lindsay Czarniak: $1.5 Million
After becoming one of ESPN's top talents, Lindsay Czarniak left the network for a more lucrative opportunity with Fox Sports 1. Using her experience hosting Sportscenter served her well as she began hosting NASCAR coverage for her new network.
Aside from her work with NASCAR, Czarniak has also spent time covering other sports, including the NFL. In 2007, she was the first reporter allowed to interview Washington Redskins players after the tragic passing of Sean Taylor.
Lisa Salters: $235,000
Lisa Salters is a veteran at ESPN. She's been involved with sports as long as anyone on this list has. That has improved the level of respect people have for her. Salters was a collegiate basketball player and pursued broadcasting after graduating.
One of her significant moments was when she had the opportunity to cover the O.J. Simpson murder trial all those years ago. Not only has she covered the Olympics, but she's also done coverage for the Super Bowl and World Cup.
Andrea Kremer: $4 Million
Andrea Kremer broke barriers in recent years when she joined Amazon Prime's Thursday Night Football broadcast as an analyst. Alongside Hannah Storm, the pair became the first female team to announce play-by-play and commentary for an NFL game.
Throughout her storied career, Kremer has covered over 25 Super Bowls for various networks. She has won two Emmy Awards and in 2018 received the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Awards for her "longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football."
Suzy Kolber: $3 Million
Suzy Kolber was one of the faces that helped launch ESPN 2 in 1992. Since then she has been a staple in sports media. Kolber hasn't always stayed loyal to ESPN, however. In 1996 she joined the sports team at Fox Sports, where she stayed for three years.
Since returning to ESPN in 1999, Kolber has become one of the network’s most important personalities. She has been so popular that her voice and likeness have even found its way into sports videogames like ESPN NFL Football, which was released on Xbox and Playstation 2.
Linda Cohn: $3 Million
Linda Cohn made history in 1987 when she was hired by ABC to become the first full-time female sports anchor for a national radio network. In 1992, Cohn moved to ESPN, where she has been a Sportscenter regular ever since.
Overall, Cohn has hosted over 5,000 episodes of the sports recap show, which is more than any other anchor in the show's history. In 2008, the sports talk veteran published her own book, Cohn-Head: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Breaking Into the Boys' Club.
Jemele Hill: $1 Million
At her peak with ESPN, Jemele Hill was making a cool million dollars a year. She worked for the network for over a decade and built an iconic chemistry and partnership with Michael Smith. The pair were so good together that ESPN gave them their own version of Sportscenter called SC6.
Unfortunately, the show covered too many topics for the network and was canceled after a brief run. Today, Hill no longer works for ESPN. She instead produces her own podcast and contributes as a writer for The Atlantic.
Holly Rowe: $800,000
As one of the prominent women faces at ESPN, Holly Rowe has been doing her job miraculously since 1998. For the past few decades, she's covered numerous postseason bowl games, regular-season games, and has done plenty play-by-play broadcasting.
Her niche is college football, but she steps outside of that realm to cover men's and women's college basketball, the Running of the Bulls, and track & field. Call her a swiss army knife if you will.
Hannah Storm: $1.5 Million
Hannah Storm didn't begin her career analyzing sports for ESPN. She started her broadcasting career in 1989 with CNN, where she spent 20 years before taking a job with ESPN and setting the broadcasting world on fire.
As you already know, Storm made history alongside Andrea Kremer in 2018 working on a national broadcast. For all her hard work and perseverance, Storm earns a reported $1.5 million a year from ESPN.
Renee Paquette: $2 Million
Renee Paquette is better known by her WWE ring name Renee Young. She first appeared on WWE as a commentator and interviewer in 2012, before that she was a sports broadcaster for The Score Television Network.
Initially wanting to become an actress, Paquette found more opportunities as a sports broadcaster and analyst. Today she makes an estimated $2 million a year.
Samantha Ponder: $4.9 Million
When Erin Andrews left the sidelines of College GameDay, Samantha Ponder stepped in. Ponder also appeared as a sports analyst on Thursday Night College Football and ESPN's Longhorn Network in Texas.
Today she's one of the highest-paid female sports analysts. Ponder currently hosts ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown where she brings in a reported annual salary of $4.9 million.
Rachel Nichols: $1.5 Million
According to Hollywood Mask, ESPN sports broadcaster Rachel Nichols earns a whopping $1.5 million. She started her career in sports journalism right out of college, covering sports for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.
She began working for ESPN in 2004 and stayed with the network for nine years, appearing on Sportscenter, Monday Night Countdown, and more. After briefly leaving for CNN, Nichols is back at ESPN and has a net worth of $10 million.
