Take your smartest friends and put them on a set to talk about female sports. This simple formula does “female sports now” work from Roku.
The format is not revolutionary, but the subject is. Suzy Shuster, a former WNBA star, award -winning sports journalist at the Emmy Awards, Renée Montgomery, Sarah Tiana sports actor and journalist from the NFL network, Colleen Wolfe, have led discussions on the latest news in the world of female sports.
During a recent recording in the El Segundo studios of AT&T, the Toyota features segment was devoted to the fishing champion of Basse Kristine Fischer, while the Miller Lite Spotlight focused on the professional surfer, the marine ecologist and engineer Maluhia Kinimaka; Montgomery apologized for a perceptive segment on the talks of the ongoing collective collective of the WNBA.
Roku has teamed up with Hello Sunshine, Rich Eisen Prods. And the Apex content ventures for “female sports now”.
But when Shuster, who is also an executive producer of Rich Eisen Prods, created the contributors, she did not consider herself as part of the talent to the camera she tells in the series preparation room, where women make pre and post-spot meetings and can relax.
“I fought her,” explains Montgomery, who was the first rental of Shuster. “I said to myself:” So who is in the series? ” And she continued to say: “We are always trying to find a host”. And I said to myself: “Why don’t you hesitate?” Because I have the impression that she is like the lady of the “the devil Porte Prada”: Miranda. »»
“Miranda Sristly ?? !!” They all exclaim.
Montgomery says yes: “Like a boss; she is HBIC.”
Tiana noted dryly: “Oh! I thought you wanted to say Miranda of “Sex and the City”, crunching the whole room.
“We really kept ourselves from the start, and the only reason why I had not put myself in this position was as an executive producer of the show, I really thought that the person sitting on the chair should be a female sports expert. And I am not.
“It is so important for me to have an environment in which women respect each other, like each other and support each other,” explains Shuster. “It was not like that for me who came to sport.”
She notes that she was lucky with her mentor, the pioneer sports journalist and broadcaster Lesley Visser, who told her that “there was enough space in the room for all women”, but it was not my experience, right? So when I could be in a good position to control the environment, I was not going to make sure that women had respect for the other and that we love each other, and could take the living pipe of others, and if we really have.
“Suzy is one of those people whose presence and energy raise everyone around her. On the camera, behind the scenes, even in the corridors of Roku, its ability to connect is inspiring. She brings passion and vision to everything she touches, and her work on Women’s Sports Now ” is only an excellent example, “explains Charlie Collier, president of Roku Media.
The biggest requirement for the hosts of the show was a feeling of engine curiosity.
Shuster notes that even if Tiana is not a journalist and does not come from the world of athletics, “she is just curious.”
Tiana loves sports – especially baseball – and her history in the comedy stands in fact gives her an overview of the sports figures she interviews. “When you are an actor, you already have the impression of being a minority when you are a woman, and you always feel singulated on stage. Feel as if you are under a microscope whenever you do something good or bad, as it is embellished by the world or by others, ”she says. “You just feel this huge responsibility on stage to be funny, because if I’m not good, then everyone will go home and they will say:” Well, see, I told you, women are not funny. “I feel like a kinship for female athletes, because I have the impression of being always under a microscope. And we are allowed to have bad games.
“Everyone needs to catch up, and I think that a large part of this show is to say, it’s already there. The fact that we just started talking about it does not mean that it has not been spoken, not everyone has to make up for it.
She says that having to fight stereotypes in comedy clubs allows her to relate to her interview subjects, such as the women’s football player. “I think that as a company, we are taught to respect women and learn to laugh at a woman takes a second, right? So, see a woman getting hit, or seeing a woman get tackling, seeing a woman fighting on a basketball court takes a second for society as a whole to catch up.
Her segments with women who are not familiar names in underdeveloped sports conclude the show so good every week, says Shuster. “How extraordinary these women are and how lucky we are that Miller Lite supported us. Because without this support for this segment, we cannot know who these women are. ”
Wolfe attributes the show to “Revigorate my love for sport, because I learn so much” before Shuster cuts: “I needed someone cute.” The play explodes with laughter. “The truth is, because I am a mother of three children, and because my children take so much my fucking time, I also need someone to help me direct the series and to be someone who could sit on a chair and drive, and it was Colleen. I think Colleen is better on television that I cannot make everyone. It is a talent, but also of college. have been working together for decades. »»
Montgomery has a podcast, but “what attracted me to the show is that we were going to talk about concepts and in addition to what happened every day. Because a lot is going on all the time. So for me, that’s what is interesting.” She is never without her dazzled mini basketball, which she manages continuously during the show, and even uses it as an exclamation after having made a particularly succinct point. (“I’m my most comfortable me when I have a ball,” she said. “And so I started doing it with the shows where I just have a ball. As, on my podcast, I always have a ball. It’s a different ball. But for this show, I made a specifically – it’s a comfort zone, a thing of athlete.”)
Many things happen in female sports at the moment. And the public is there for that. Whether podcasts and podcast producers like Wave look at female sports or websites like Just Women’s Sports, there is a thirst for this content.
According to Roku, Roku bets on this increase – the commitment of female sports in 2024 increased by 143% on the platform.
Hello Sunshine bet on female sports about three years ago, when his series “Surf Girls” was recovered by Prime Video and has become a success. “It was with emerging talents, undoubtedly a niche sport, and a bulb died that the tides were running,” said Sara Rea, Hello Sunshine manager.
“This is always something we wanted to do. … Sports are just a space we love,” notes Rea. “Our mission is to put women at the center of history. We started the business to change the story of women in the media and entertainment. And when you look at the statistics of the way the sport to play advantageous is for the career of women, for their self -confidence, for all these reasons, it was obvious for us to double in a space that has such a positive impact for young girls and women. ”
And Hello Sunshine is very committed to female sports – it is behind Netflix Hit “F1: The Academy”, in addition, “we have a series of documents on which we work. We have a series of Ilona Maher Doc, and obviously “female sports now”. So, for us, it was an opportunity to really look at a passion, both personally and professionally.
She adds: “It is a saturated market, but there is always a void with regard to female sports, and we need more of that. I believe that stories of female teams and athletes behind the scenes play differently from man and I think that it is a fascinating space that is currently being missed.”
Shuster says: “I find that my boys learn a lot too, which is really cool. We have three children, and I don’t think boys are also exposed to female sports as they should be. And my children now put stories into play for me. ”
“Women’s Sports Now” also works because Shuster, Montgomery, Tiana and Wolfe’s chemistry is outside the charts – but the four women are also so different.
They credit the production team and especially the winner producer of an Emmy Don Bui, who worked on the “Rich Eisen Show” for years.
“Why does it work and we can be who we want to be is that the control room is cold, and don and I have known for a long time. He was what I wanted from the start, ”says Shuster. “He is freezing there, and he always makes the right choice. But because he is so organized and because it is so calm, we can be who we want to be. And I promise you, it is a rarity in our company.”
Montgomery echoes this feeling: “This is what I noticed, from top to bottom, and in the discussions, on the calls we have, our weekly meeting … So don Don Bui – I call him Don Bui (everyone does, even Bui) – understands what I want, but he does not understand that we want Sarah or Colleen, so he doesn’t want to be a group. Silos, like, it’s the way of this person.
