ESPN's College Gameday will have a new face this fall. Samantha Steele will be called up to the Majors and take the spot vacated by Erin Andrews, who recently left to join Fox Sports.
Steele has been working at the Longhorn Network and worked sideline duty at various college football and basketball games for ESPN.
With the departure of Michelle Beadle and Andrews, she will most likely be the new female face of ESPN along with Charissa Thompson and Sara Walsh.
We fill you in on Steele's background and attach a mini photo gallery to help you get to know her a little better. Steele, 26, is a graduate of Liberty University and her father is a football coach. She worked for Fox Sports Net and Fox College Sports before landing a job at the Longhorn Network.
She will be hosting the pre-Gameday show on ESPNU at 9am, helping at the College Gameday broadcast on ESPN, and take over sideline reporting duties during the Thursday and Saturday night football games. She will be thrust into the spotlight and college boys will surely be giving her the same rude catcalls they yelled at Andrews for years.
She's the perfect addition to the broadcasts. She's professional, extremely likable, and cute as a button.
Michelle Beadle has been the co-host of 'SportsNation' with Colin Cowherd since its inception three years ago. Her contract with ESPN ended on May 31st and she announced that she has signed a contract with NBC.
She didn't waste any time before she appeared on the 'Dan Patrick Show'. She appeared during the last hour on Friday, June 1st. She discussed her time at ESPN, her rumored feud with Erin Andrews, and what she will be doing at NBC. She also announced that she will be receiving her own sports show that will appear this fall.
Now that Beadle has left the network, what is the fate 'SportsNation'? Who will be replacing her as co-host?
We also have video of Beadle's appearance on the 'Dan Patrick Show' and her final segment on 'SportsNation'. I will always have soft spot for 'SportsNation'. My Twitter page and tweet was featured in the first episode. I think I was one of the first tweets that was read on their airwaves. Even though the show has changed considerably, I would still watch it because Beadle is such a likable person. She even made Cowherd seem human.
I have been in contact with a person who has worked on the show since the beginning. We direct message each other on Twitter and he would ask me what I thought of recent changes to the show. I would always be very honest and usually say that I didn't like them.
Beadle will be the new co-host of 'Access Hollywood', appear at various NBC sporting events, and she announced on the 'Dan Patrick Show' that she will have a new sports show on NBC this fall. Here is her appearance on the show...along with an 'Against the Grain' segment she did with Andrew 'McLovin' Perloff.
In Michelle Beadle's last segment, many ESPN personalities make cameos. Matthew Berry, Eric Mangini, and Skip Bayless pop up to wish her well. The show teases the show's next co-host, but only shows her legs. It is rumored to be Charissa Thompson, who has filled in for Beadle numerous times. She is the current host of ESPN's 'Numbers Never Lie'.
'Numbers Never Lie' is rumored to be changing to a format most resembling 'First Take. The network believes that she would be a better fit on 'SportsNation'.
Thompson has experience as a sideline reporter for Fox and was a fill-in co-host on Fox's 'The Best Damn Sports Show Period'.
She has a natural chemistry with Cowherd, who is rumored to be leaving the show at the end of 2012 for his own half-hour show. It is unknown how much longer 'SportsNation' will last without Beadle and Cowherd. Let's hope that it isn't as awkward as when Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla left 'The Man Show' only to be replaced with Joe Rogan and Doug Stanhope.
Here is Beadle's last segment on 'SportsNation' along with the Thompson teaser at the end.
Best of luck goes out to Michelle Beadle at her new gig at NBC. Let's hope that she is able appear at some WWE events in the near future. She will be based in NYC and next year's 'Wrestlemania' will be held at the new Meadowlands in the NJ/NY area. We know that she is a big fan. Maybe she can talk them into reviving 'Saturday Night's Main Event' which aired on the network.
