Van Earl Wright (born January 27, 1962)
is an American television
sportscaster,
news anchor
A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...
and
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
with over 30 years of national and local experience.
A graduate of the
University of South Carolina, Wright is known for a homespun delivery which reflects his
Southern
Southern may refer to:
Businesses
* China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China
* Southern Airways, defunct US airline
* Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US
* Southern Airways Express, M ...
roots. His signature greeting is ''"Hel-looooo, everybody."''
Broadcasting career
Fox Sports Net (FSN)
For much of the late 1990s until the summer of 2007, Wright worked for
Fox Sports Net
Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...
, serving chiefly as an anchor of both the ''
National Sports Report
The ''National Sports Report'' is a newscast, sportscast that aired on United States television channel Fox Sports Net.
Brief history
The program premiered on November 1, 1996 in television, 1996, when FSN was launched, as ''Fox Sports News''. T ...
'' and ''
FSN Final Score
''Final Score'' (formerly ''FSN Final Score'') is an American nightly sports news program that aired on Fox Sports Net. The program debuted on July 3, 2006 and aired at 10:30 p.m. local time Monday through Friday, with replays at various time ...
'', both attempts at competing with ESPN's ''
SportsCenter
''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television show, television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of United States, American cable television, cable and satellite television television network, network ESPN. The show ...
''. He also hosted and anchored for
Fox Sports West
Bally Sports West is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios, and operated as part of Bally Sports, along with its sister network Bally Sports ...
, including their regional ''NSR'' companion, the ''Southern California Sports Report''. During his stint at FSN, he was most notable for his staunch support and adulation of
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely r ...
of the
L.A. Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...
.
CNN
Wright is a former anchor at both
CNN Headline News
HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the network primarily carries true crime programming.
The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982 by Turner Broadcasting as CNN2 (later renamed Headline News ...
and
CNN/Sports Illustrated, which put together reflects the longest tenure of his career. He also co-hosted
Fox Sports Radio
Fox Sports Radio is an American sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports division and iHeartMedia, parent company ...
's ''Morning Extravaganza''.
Even though he was never shown on-air, Wright's voice became legendary during Headline News' sports segments during the 1980s at 19 and 49 minutes after the hour, especially for his elongated pronunciation of '
Los An-ge-leees'. Late in his tenure, he also routinely read his dry mandated sign-off ("I'm Van Earl Wright, CNN Headline Sports") with a series of increasingly bizarre inflections. His segment got noted on-air by
Larry King
Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021) was an American television and radio host, whose awards included 2 Peabodys
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program ...
and
Al Michaels
Alan Richard Michaels (born November 12, 1944) is an American television sportscaster currently working as the play-by-play announcer for ''Thursday Night Football'' on Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports. He has worked on netwo ...
, among others.
Other broadcasting assignments
Wright also worked in
Beaumont, Texas
Beaumont is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat, seat of government of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur, Texas, Port Arthur Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, metropo ...
as a weekend
sports anchor
In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...
on
KBMT
KBMT (channel 12) is a television station in Beaumont, Texas, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside low-power broadcasting#Television, low-power MyNetworkTV affiliate KUIL- ...
and later in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
both as a sports anchor on
WDIV
WDIV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with NBC. It serves as the flagship broadcast property of the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WDIV-TV maintains studio faciliti ...
, the local
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
television affiliate, and also as the host of a short-lived midday show on all-
sports radio
Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...
station
WDFN
WDFN (1130 AM) is a radio station in Detroit, Michigan. Owned by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts an all-news radio format under iHeartMedia's Black Information Network, targeting Detroit's African American community. Its studios are located in the D ...
-AM. Reflecting on his move from WDIV to CNN, he said, "My four years at CNN were great in that I received a lot of exposure not only nationally, but worldwide as well. It definitely helped me develop a style that I am now well known for, but it was also very limiting because the atmosphere there was very conservative. In the end, I realized that if I wanted the opportunity to grow and take on new challenges in broadcasting ... it was going to be somewhere else."
Wright provided the announcer's voice for
Crystal Dynamics
Crystal Dynamics, Inc. is an American video game developer based in San Mateo, California and part of Embracer Group. The studio developed the '' Gex'', ''Legacy of Kain'', and ''Tomb Raider'' series. Founded in 1992 by Madeline Canepa, Judy L ...
'
Sega Saturn
The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the succ ...
baseball
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
''
3D Baseball'' and
3DO basketball game ''
Slam 'n Jam 95''.
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and other appearances
Wright also provided the voice overs for
World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of Nation ...
in the 90's during segments promoting upcoming live events.
On February 22, 2007 Wright participated on a special broadcasters' edition of ''
Pros vs. Joes
''Pros vs. Joes'' was an American physical reality game show that aired on Spike from 2006 to 2010. The show featured male amateur contestants (the "Joes") matching themselves against professional athletes (the "Pros"; mostly of retired male and ...
'' on
Spike TV
Paramount Network is an American basic cable television channel owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Media Networks. The network's headquarters are located at the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Los Angeles.
The channel was o ...
with
Derrin Horton and Sal Masakela. The "pros" they faced were former
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
center
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...
Rik Smits
Rik Smits (born 23 August 1966), nicknamed "the Dunking Dutchman" is a Dutch former professional basketball player who spent his entire career with the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The center was drafted by the ...
,
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
pro
Robby Ginepri
Robert Louis Ginepri ( ; born October 7, 1982) is a retired American professional tennis player. He won three ATP singles titles in his career and achieved a career-high ranking of World No. 15 in December 2005. Ginepri's best Grand Slam result ...
, former
MLB
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
relief pitcher
In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue (medical), fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection (sports), ejection, or for other strategic ...
Rob Dibble
Rob or ROB may refer to:
Places
* Rob, Velike Lašče, a settlement in Slovenia
* Roberts International Airport (IATA code ROB), in Monrovia, Liberia
People
* Rob (given name), a given name or nickname, e.g., for Robert(o), Robin/Robyn
* Rob ...
and former
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
wide receiver Andre Rison
Andre Previn Rison (born March 18, 1967) is a former American football wide receiver who played professionally for the National Football League's Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars, Green Bay Packers, ...
.
Wright has had a few appearances on ''
Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide
''Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide'' (sometimes shortened to ''Ned's Declassified'') is an American live action sitcom on Nickelodeon that debuted on the Nickelodeon Sunday night TEENick scheduling block on September 12, 2004. The series ...
'' playing himself alongside
Willie Gault
Willie James Gault (born September 5, 1960) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons with the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Raiders. Considered one of the f ...
as sports broadcasters and most recently was featured in the
series finale
A series finale is the final installment of an episodic entertainment series, most often a television series. It may also refer to a final theatrical sequel, the last part of a television miniseries, the last installment of a literary series, or ...
.
In January 2008, Wright became the voice of the new
''American Gladiators'' on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
, which was hosted by
Hulk Hogan
Terry Eugene Bollea (; born August 11, 1953), better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American retired professional wrestler. He is widely regarded as the most recognized wrestling star worldwide and the most popular wrestler of the 19 ...
and
Laila Ali
Laila Amaria Ali (born December 30, 1977) is an American television personality and retired professional boxer who competed from 1999 to 2007. During her career, from which she retired undefeated, she held the World Boxing Council, WBC, Women's I ...
.
From 2012 until mid-2013, Wright provided the play by play commentary for the Lingerie Football League, until being replaced by league associates Jim Stews and Mitchell Mortaza.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Van Earl
University of South Carolina alumni
American radio personalities
Living people
American television reporters and correspondents
American television sports anchors
Place of birth missing (living people)
National Hockey League broadcasters
Television in Detroit
Detroit Tigers announcers
Major League Baseball broadcasters
CNN people
1962 births