Photo Credit: Joe Faraoni/ESPN Images
As one of the few female sports anchors who has her own show, Lindsay Czarniak is doing something that most people will never even accomplish. She is currently the sole host of Sportscenter on ESPN at 6:00 PM and from that point. Hosting Sportscenter isn’t her only job, Czarniak is also known for her “Pick 6 Interviews.”
Czarniak’s early life was full of sports, in high school she played lacrosse and field hockey. Her love of sports came from the fact that her father worked for their town’s local newspaper, covering sports. After high school, Czarniak pursued a degree in online journalism at James Madison University where she graduated from in 2000. Before graduating, she interned at WUSA, a news station in Washington D.C. However her big break would not come for another five years when she would return to D.C. after being offered a job at NBC 4 as a sports anchor and reporter.
During her tenure at NBC4, Czarniak got plenty of experience, covering the 2006 Olympic Games, NASCAR Races and being a co-host of The George Michael Sports Machine. Less than a year after her arrival, Michael would step down and she was given another co-host. One of the biggest stories that she covered in her 5 years with NBC4 was the murder of Washington Redskins safety, Sean Taylor. However in 2011, Czarniak made a transition from NBC4 to ESPN which is where she gained a lot of her popularity.
As the sole anchor of the 6:00 PM SportsCenter, Czarniak brings an interesting and refreshing take on the world of sports. One of her greatest ideas though is “Pick 6” where she interviews players but with a twist. She asks them three questions about things that their fans might not know about them. However, it’s not just fun and games since Czarniak makes sure to pick someone that is related to that week’s biggest stories. She also allows viewers to get involved by tweeting their questions and tries to get her guests to be as active and open as possible.
Her mission for the evening is clear: she wants to let the people at home know what’s going on, but she wants to do her own way and Czarniak summed it up best herself, “I want them to have a beer with us. That’s what my vision would be: to bring you up to date with the best insight on a topic, but also to do it in a conversational way where you could have that same conversation sitting in a bar.” In what is probably one of the most honest and realistic descriptions of SportsCenter, Czarniak is exactly that. She wants to inform people, but she wants to have fun while doing it.
