Julia Lauren Shehadi (born May 23, 1983) is an American sportscaster for the

MLB Network The MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit, Comcast's NBC Sports Group, Charter Communications, and Cox Com ...

and

Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS, TNT, AT&T SportsNet, and TruTV. ...

Career

Shehadi attended Langley High School in

McLean MacLean, also spelt Maclean and McLean, is a Goidelic languages, Gaelic surname Mac Gille Eathain, or, Mac Giolla Eóin in Irish language, Irish Gaelic), Eóin being a Gaelic form of Johannes (John (given name), John). The clan surname is an A ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, graduating in 2001. In college at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

she served as the host of the online ''Gatorzone''. She also worked as an intern for ''

The Best Damn Sports Show Period ''The Best Damn Sports Show Period'' was an American sports television show that aired on Fox Sports Net and Comcast SportsNet. The show regularly featured irreverent and opinionated interviews with top athletes, coaches, celebrities, and entertai ...

'' and as a sports anchor for

KXMC-TV KXMC-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Minot, North Dakota, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station has studios at the intersection of 2nd Street SE and 18th Avenue SE in Minot, and i ...

Minot Minot ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Ward County, North Dakota, Ward County, North Dakota, United States, in the state's north-central region. It is most widely known for the Minot Air Force Base, Air Force base approximately north of ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

. She is of Lebanese descent. Shehadi worked for

CBSSports.com CBSSports.com (formerly CBS SportsLine.com and SportsLine USA) is an American sports news website operated by Paramount Streaming, itself a division of Paramount Global. It is the website for CBS's CBS Sports division that features news, highl ...

and

CBS College Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television television network, network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Tele ...

. In addition to serving as the host for many of the videos on CBSSports.com, Shehadi was the co-host of the SEC Tailgate show and the ALT Games with

Jonny Moseley Jonathan William Moseley (born August 27, 1975) is an American freestyle skier and television presenter. He is the first person born in Puerto Rico to become a member of the U.S. Ski Team. He is also known for hosting three seasons of MTV's '' T ...

on the CBS College Sports Network. In 2010 she was a candidate for ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

''’s "Sexiest Sportscaster" contest. Shehadi joined the

in 2012. She previously hosted ''The Rundown'' on MLB Network alongside

Matt Yallof Matt Yallof (born September 24, 1968) is an American sports commentator for MLB Network and NHL Network, where he debuted June 3, 2009. Yallof hosts the regular season studio show "The Rundown" and MLB Network Strike Zone. Yallof also appears on ...

and currently hosts ''MLB Central'' alongside

Robert Flores Robert Flores (born July 7, 1970) is a sports journalist, who works for MLB Network and NHL Network as a studio host for each. He fills in for Hot Stove on MLB Network. Flores formerly worked at ESPN. Joining the network in 2005, Flores was an an ...

and

Mark DeRosa Mark Thomas DeRosa (born February 26, 1975) is an American former professional baseball player who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1998 to 2013. He played for the Atlanta Braves (1998–2004), Texas Rangers (2005–2006), Chicago Cubs ...

. In January 2018, Shehadi started hosting a podcast called ''The Podium,'' a podcast between

NBC Sports Group NBC Sports Group is a division of NBCUniversal that is responsible for NBC Sports' media properties, encompassing the NBC television network's sports division as well as day-to-day operation of the company's sports-oriented cable networks and oth ...

and

Vox Media Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''SB Nation'' (a sports blog network founded in 2005 by ...

, which focuses on athletes and events at the

2018 Winter Olympic Games , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

PyeongChang Pyeongchang (; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ; ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seou ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. In October 2018, she worked as the on-field commentator during TBS's coverage of the

2018 American League Championship Series The 2018 American League Championship Series was a best-of-seven series pitting the defending World Series champion Houston Astros against the Boston Red Sox, for the American League (AL) pennant and the right to play in the 2018 World Series. ...

. On March 10, 2020, Shehadi was announced to be a sideline reporter for CBS and Turner's March Madness coverage for the first time. She was scheduled to work with

Andrew Catalon Andrew Catalon (born September 7, 1979) is an American sportscaster. He has announced NFL on CBS, PGA Tour on CBS, College Basketball on CBS, NBA on CBS and NCAA March Madness. He has done play-by-play alongside James Lofton on National Football L ...

and former Villanova head coach

Steve Lappas Stephan Thomas Lappas (born March 18, 1954) is an American former college basketball coach. He coached at Manhattan (1988–1992), Villanova (1992–2001) and UMass (2001–2005), compiling a 280–237 (.542) record over a 17-year coaching ca ...

, replacing

Lisa Byington Lisa Byington (born May 18, 1976) is a play-by-play announcer, studio host, and feature producer/reporter. She has broadcast games for Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports, Fox Sports 1, FS1, Big Ten Network, CBS, Turner Sports, Pac-12 Networ ...

, who was promoted to the number 6 team, with

Spero Dedes Spero is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Anthony Spero (1929-2008), American criminal *David Spero (born 1951), American DJ and music manager *Deborah Spero, American law enforcement official *Donald Spero (born 1939), American ...

Steve Smith Stephen, Steve, Stevie, or Steven Smith may refer to: Academics * Steve Smith (political scientist) (born 1952), British international relations theorist and senior university manager * Stephen Smith (journalist) (born 1956), American journalist, ...

, and

Wally Szczerbiak Walter Robert Szczerbiak Jr. ( ; born March 5, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player and current color analyst for the New York Knicks on MSG Network. He played 10 seasons for four teams in the National Basketball Associat ...

, replacing Ros Gold-Onwude, who departed Turner Sports for ESPN. However, she, along with

Dwyane Wade Dwyane Tyrone Wade Jr. (; born January 17, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player. Wade spent the majority of his 16-year career playing for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and won three NBA champi ...

and Adam Lefkoe, had their NCAA Tournament debuts pushed back to

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, as the

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

tournament was cancelled two days later over concerns of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

References

External links

MLB Network bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shehadi, Lauren 1983 births Living people People from McLean, Virginia Sportspeople from Fairfax County, Virginia American sports announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters MLB Network personalities University of Florida alumni CBS Sports American people of Lebanese descent Women sports announcers Sportspeople of Lebanese descent