Lesley Visser, television’s first national female sportscaster, began her active crusade several years ago.
“Television needs an all-woman panel show to bring our perspective about all the changes on the sports scene,” she said in an interview.
Visser’s crusade becomes a reality at 8 p.m. Tuesday when cable’s CBS Sports Network premieres an hour-long weekly series. “We Need to Talk” will regularly feature a panel of women sports broadcasters, famed athletes and executives.
Predictably, the 61-year-old Visser will be a regular part of the panel, offering strong opinions while providing a history of women in the sports media.
Her career began in 1974 at The Boston Globe, where she shared duties with noted sportswriters Peter Gammons, Bud Collins and Will McDonough while making headlines interviewing pro football players in locker rooms after games.
In 1984, she joined CBS Sports and produced another sports headline — the first woman to provide locker room interviews on national television. And the New England Patriots weren’t happy about it.
Visser, in the twilight of a long, illustrious career, loves to boast about her pioneer broadcasting life. She once told me, “I’ve been around for so long, I know the difference between Jim Nance (the former fullback) and Jim Nantz (the CBS Sports broadcaster).”
Your first reaction to “We Need to Talk” might be that the series is an offshoot of the ongoing controversy surrounding Ray Rice and domestic violence. Wrong.
The series, announced Aug. 26 before the Rice elevator video became a TV and Internet staple, has been in the works for more than a year, according to CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus.
Rotating series regulars will include Tracy Wolfson, sideline reporter for the Nantz-Phil Simms NFL broadcasting team on CBS; Summer Sanders, NBC’s Olympics reporter; Lisa Leslie, former WNBA star; Amy Trask, former Oakland Raiders CEO; and Andrea Kremer, part of the reporting team on HBO’s “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel.” The coordinating producer and director is Suzanne Smith of CBS, the only female NFL game director
The timing for such a series is perfect, considering the continued growth of women in key sports positions, including important interviewing. Success will depend on CBS Sports’ willingness to stand by a series that initially won’t be an audience ratings blockbuster. The CBS Sports Network is not part of basic cable and some satellite delivery services. It is seen in half the nation’s homes.
Phil file. When will the next anti-Simms campaign start? CBS ignored 42,000 signatures on a petition to remove him from working Broncos telecasts because of his alleged anti-Broncos sentiment.
Internet sports columns report that some Washington fans, unhappy because Simms won’t say “Redskins” on the air, also have launched a “let’s get rid of Phil” petition. According to The Washington Post, Simms, the only NFL broadcaster who will not say “Redskins” in game coverage, goofed only once Thursday night during the Washington-New York Giants telecast. With nine minutes left, Simms said: “Can the Redskins … (pause) … can the Washington offense …”
Longtime Denver journalist Dusty Saunders writes about sports media each Monday in The Denver Post. Contact him at tvtime@comcast.net.
If you don’t have access to Fox Sports 1, which is featured on basic cable, find a friendly bar or go to a friend’s house to watch most of the NL Championship Series. Only Game 1 and Game 6 of the NLCS, both on a Saturday, are scheduled to air on the traditional Fox network.
Major League Baseball’s post- season opens Tuesday with TBS televising the AL wild-card game. ESPN will televise the NL wild-card game Wednesday. TBS will televise the entire AL Championship Series.
