Maria Taylor Earns Big Promotion With NBC Sports

05/17/2022 09:16 am EDT

Maria Taylor will be seen more on NBC Sports. The network recently announced that the 35-year-old sportscaster has been named the new host of Football Night in America, which is the pre- and post-game show for Sunday Night Football during the NFL season. Taylor made her debut on the program as a co-host in 2021. 

NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood said: "Maria is the perfect choice to carry the legacy forward of anchoring the most-watched studio show in sports." Taylor made the jump to NBC Sports after spending eight years at ESPN where she was the host of NBA Countdown, college football and basketball coverage and the NCAA Women's Final Four studio show. She also served as a reporter on College Gameday and a sideline reporter on ESPN's biggest college football and basketball games each week. 

From May 2021 to February 2022, Taylor has hosted many top events. When she made the move to NBC Sports in July 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Super Bowl LVI Pregame Show and the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics. Before joining NBC Sports, Taylor hosted the primetime network broadcast of the NFL Draft and NBA Finals for ESPN/ABC. 

"It's funny because I never — like this wasn't the dream," Taylor said in an interview with Insider before she joined NBC Sports. "The biggest dream I could have lived was being at the women's volleyball Final Four doing sidelines or something for that. And then working the women's basketball tournament. I was like, if I could get an opportunity to host the tournament or be at the final four in some way, that's the dream."

"But that's what I grew up watching; as a former student-athlete and playing college sports, that was it. And the reason I got into broadcasting is because our volleyball matches would be on TV every now and then. I was able to meet the broadcasters, and I was like, 'Oh, someone gets paid to just like, talk about the games and sit up there and have a conversation about the team and talk to us. That's what I want to do!'" Taylor, who is from Alpharetta, Georgia, played volleyball and basketball at the University of Georgia from 2005 to 2009.

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