Just announced by Tennis Channel today, on-air host and analyst Mary Carillo has signed a three year contract extension through 2016. She’ll remain on the channel which has been one of her TV homes since 2011.
As you’re aware, Carillo works for a multitude of networks, CBS, HBO and NBC in addition to her work on Tennis Channel. She joined the network after leaving ESPN over an undisclosed disagreement.
Carillo will continue to be a host at the French and U.S. Opens as well as Wimbledon. She’ll add the Sony Open Tennis tournament in March to her Tennis Channel portfolio as well as other tournaments throughout the year.
Here’s the announcement.
THREE-YEAR BROADCAST EXTENSION WIDENS MARY CARILLO’S ROLE WITH TENNIS CHANNEL
Award-Winning Sportscaster to Add Tournament, Studio Appearances to Current French Open, Wimbledon and US Open Schedule
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 27, 2014 – Tennis Channel and Mary Carillo have agreed to a three- year broadcast extension that expands her role with the network and keeps her on air through 2016. In addition to her current French Open, Wimbledon and US Open assignments, the Emmy Award-winning sportscaster will cover March’s Sony Open Tennis tournament in Miami – one of the sport’s six largest events – and numerous other competitions throughout the year from Los Angeles as part of Tennis Channel’s in-studio team. The announcement was made today by Bob Whyley, senior vice president of production and executive producer, Tennis Channel.
“This is a fascinating time to cover tennis and I’ve had a lot of fun as part of the Tennis Channel team,” said Carillo. “With everything that’s going on in the sport right now I’m happy to be there with the network as it all unfolds.”
Carillo joined Tennis Channel in 2011, when she hosted the network’s live tournament desks at the French Open in Paris and US Open in New York. In 2012 she added Wimbledon to the list and appeared in numerous segments on the network’s Wimbledon Primetime set on the tournament grounds in London. She was part of Tennis Channel’s on-air team at all three events again in 2013. Carillo made select on-air appearances during Tennis Channel’s 2012 coverage of Miami’s Sony Open Tennis tournament, an event she will add to her annual duties starting in 2014.
As an on-air host during Tennis Channel’s coverage at major tournaments, Carillo conducts interviews, produces special reports and offers analysis and perspective. Her numerous segments include “Fleet Street Beat” during Wimbledon, in which she convenes a panel of longtime British tennis reporters for Tennis Channel’s American audiences. She has been praised by network viewers and sports reporters alike for the energy, enthusiasm and tone she brings to Tennis Channel’s major telecasts.
“It’s been a privilege to work with Mary at the most prestigious events in our sport, and we’re excited that Tennis Channel viewers will get to see even more of her in the years ahead,” said Whyley. “Her humor, tennis expertise and innate sense of story have been invaluable additions to our on-air coverage.”
A former tennis player who won the 1977 French Open mixed-doubles crown with childhood friend John McEnroe, Carillo remains one of the most respected voices in sports journalism today. After retiring from professional tennis in 1980, she began her on-air career as a tennis analyst for USA Network, and has since covered a variety of sports for CBS Sports, NBC Sports, HBO Sports, ESPN and Bravo. Carillo is renowned for a no-nonsense approach laced with wit and humor, and is widely recognized for her work at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games for NBC Sports, and as a correspondent on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.
A Sports Emmy Award and George Foster Peabody Award winner, Carillo was the first female winner of the Dick Schaap Award for Outstanding Journalism (in 2010). Tennis magazine has repeatedly named her “Best TV Commentator,” while women’s professional tennis’ governing body, the WTA, has twice honored her as its “Broadcaster of the Year.”
Carillo spent much of the past three weeks at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, as part of the NBC Sports on-air team. Among her special reports was the documentary Nancy & Tonya, a 20-year-retrospective of the infamous Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding storyline at the 1994 Winter Olympics.
There you have it.
