James Talmadge Brown (born February 25, 1951) is an American sportscaster known for being the studio host of ''The James Brown Show'' and ''

The NFL Today ''The NFL Today'' is an American football television program on CBS that serves as the pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL) game telecasts under the ''NFL on CBS'' brand. The program features commentary on the latest ne ...

'' on

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...

. He is also a Special Correspondent for

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the '' CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 4 ...

. He is additionally known for serving as the former host of

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

' NFL

pregame show A pre-game, pregame, or pre-match show is a television or radio presentation that occurs immediately before the live broadcast of a major sporting event. They typically feature previews and analysis relating to upcoming games (either a larger f ...

'' Fox NFL Sunday'' for eleven years.

Early life

James Brown was born on February 25, 1951, in Washington, D.C. to John and Maryann Brown. He attended high school at

DeMatha Catholic High School DeMatha Catholic High School is a four-year Catholic high school for boys located in Hyattsville, Maryland, United States. Named after John of Matha, DeMatha is under the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and is a member of the Washington ...

, and later graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

with a degree in American Government. A standout on the basketball court, he received All-

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

honors in his last three seasons at Harvard and captained the team in his senior year. His roommate was future Harvard professor and activist Cornel West.

Broadcasting career

CBS (1970s–1994)

After failing to make a roster spot when he tried out for the NBA's

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...

in the mid-1970s, Brown entered the corporate world, working for such companies as

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (having moved from St ...

and

Eastman Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

. Brown went into

sports broadcasting The broadcasting of sports events (also known as a sportscast) is the live coverage of sports as a television program, on radio, and other broadcasting media. It usually involves one or more sports commentators describing events as they happen. ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

when he was offered a job doing

Washington Bullets The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays ...

television broadcasts as well as an analyst job for ''The NBA on CBS'', paired with Frank Glieber. He later moved on to an anchor position at WDVM-TV (later WUSA) in Washington and to some work at

. Brown was rehired by CBS Sports in 1987, where he served as play-by-play announcer for the network's NFL and

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coverage, as well as reporter for the

NBA Finals The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is a ...

(calling games with

Tom Heinsohn Thomas William Heinsohn (August 26, 1934 – November 9, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. He was associated with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for six decades as a player, coach and broadcast ...

during the 1990 NBA Playoffs) and the

1990 National League Championship Series The 1990 National League Championship Series was played between the Cincinnati Reds (91–71) and the Pittsburgh Pirates (95–67). It was the first playoff appearance for both teams since 1979 and the fifth NLCS meeting overall with Cincinnati ...

. He also was host of the afternoon show from the

1992 Winter Olympics ) , nations = 64 , athletes = 1,801 (1313 men, 488 women) , events = 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines) , opening = 8 February 1992 , closing = 23 February 1992 , opened_by = President François Mitterrand , cauldron ...

Albertville, France Albertville (; Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile'') is a subprefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southeastern France. It is best known for hosting the 1992 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. In 2018, the commune had ...

and the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 17. olympiske vinterleker; nn, Dei 17. olympiske vinterleikane) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, was an international winter multi-sport event held fr ...

in Lillehammer, Norway. While at CBS he also was co-host of '' CBS Sports Saturday/Sunday'', a weekend anthology series.

Fox, and back to CBS (1994–present)

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

, Brown accepted the position of host of the ''

NFL on Fox The ''NFL on Fox'' (also known as ''Fox NFL'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games produced by Fox Sports and televised on the Fox broadcast network. Game coverage is usually preceded by '' Fox NFL Kick ...

'' pregame show. He shared the set with former football players

Terry Bradshaw Terry Paxton Bradshaw (born September 2, 1948) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League (NFL). Since 1994, he has been a television sports analyst an ...

and

Howie Long Howard Matthew Moses Long (born January 6, 1960) is an American sports analyst and former professional football player. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons as a defensive end, spending his entire career with the Raider ...

and former coach Jimmy Johnson. Cris Collinsworth and Ronnie Lott have also appeared on the program during Brown's time there. From

–

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, Brown was the lead studio host for '' FOX NHL Saturday''. He appeared in a similar capacity in the

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...

video game '' NHL '97'', which used full-motion video. His voice appeared in ''

Madden NFL 2001 ''Madden NFL 2001'' is an American football video game. It is the third in the Madden NFL series to include an NFL player, Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George, on its cover (the first being '' Madden NFL '95'', which featured Erik Williams ...

''. On August 23, 1997, Brown filled-in for Chip Caray as the studio host for '' Fox Saturday Baseball''. James Brown worked for the joint HBO/Showtime pay-per-view boxing match involving Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson. Following the

2005 NFL season The 2005 NFL season was the 86th regular season of the National Football League. Regular season play was held from September 8, 2005 to January 1, 2006. The regular season also saw the first ever regular season game played outside the United ...

, Brown left Fox in order to rejoin CBS Sports, citing a desire to remain closer to his home in Washington, D.C. Brown was removed from college basketball coverage for CBS after a one-year stint in 2007. However, he still hosts the college basketball pregame, halftime and postgame in the CBS studios in New York City while

Greg Gumbel Greg Gumbel (born May 3, 1946) is an American television sportscaster. He is best known for his various assignments for CBS Sports (most notably, the National Football League and NCAA basketball). The older brother of news and sportscaster Brya ...

, the main host, is on assignment.

Other appearances

Brown has also hosted '' The World's Funniest!'' (the Fox network's counterpart of ''

America's Funniest Home Videos ''America's Funniest Home Videos'', also called ''America's Funniest Videos'' (abbreviated as ''AFV''), is an American video clip television series on ABC, based on the Japanese variety show ''Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan''. The show featur ...

''), '' Coast to Coast'' (a syndicated

radio show A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio netwo ...

formerly hosted by

Bob Costas Robert Quinlan Costas (born March 22, 1952) is an American sportscaster who is known for his long tenure with NBC Sports, from 1980 through 2019. He has received 28 Emmy awards for his work and was the prime-time host of 12 Olympic Games from 19 ...

), and served as a correspondent for ''

Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel ''Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel'' is a monthly sports news magazine on HBO. Since its debut on April 2, 1995, the program has been presented by television journalist and sportscaster Bryant Gumbel. Overview Format Each episode consists of fou ...

''. Brown appeared on an episode of '' Married... with Children'' in a November 24, 1996 episode titled "A Bundy Thanksgiving". Aside from his Showtime and CBS duties, Brown hosted a weekday radio

sports talk show 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 ...

that aired weekdays on Sporting News Radio for several years. Brown left the network in April 2006. He has since, returned to Sporting News Radio with Arnie Spanier. In March 2009, Brown was named the Community Ambassador for

AARP AARP (formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons) is an interest group in the United States focusing on issues affecting those over the age of fifty. The organization said it had more than 38 million members in 2018. The magazi ...

. On August 10, 2009, Brown interviewed NFL quarterback Michael Vick for a segment that aired on ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique st ...

''. On March 24, 2013, Brown reported on Brian Banks in a segment titled "Blindsided: The Exoneration of Brian Banks" on ''

''. On May 14, 2013, Brown appeared onstage with the co-CEO of SAP, Bill McDermott, fo
McDermott's keynote speech
at SAPPHIRE NOW from Orlando. On February 14, July 28-August 1, 2014, December 22–23, 2014, and November 23, 2018, Brown hosted the

CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...

covering for Scott Pelley and later Jeff Glor. Brown has also contributed for ''

CBS This Morning ''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987, to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program was aired from Monday through Saturday. ...

'', as well as ''

CBS Sunday Morning ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' (normally shortened to ''Sunday Morning'' on the program itself since 2009) is an American news magazine television program that has aired on CBS since January 28, 1979. Created by Robert Northshield and original hos ...

''.

Personal life

Brown resides outside of Washington, D.C. in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which ...

, his town of birth, with his wife Dorothy and daughter Katrina. He formerly had a second residence in

Century City, California Century City is a 176-acre (71.2 ha) neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles, California. Located on the Westside to the south of Santa Monica Boulevard around 10 miles (16 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles, Century City is one of ...

, when working on FOX as their NFL program was based in Los Angeles. He was also named one of the 100 most influential student athletes by the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

. He has three granddaughters and one grandson, born to his daughter, Katrina and her husband John. Brown is a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

. On May 3, 2006, Brown became a minority owner of the

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadiu ...

Major League Baseball 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 (A ...

team. Brown was one of a handful of investors in the group led by Washington, D.C. real estate developer

Ted Lerner Theodore N. Lerner (born October 15, 1925) is an American real estate developer, and former managing principal owner of the Washington Nationals baseball team. He is the founder of the real estate company Lerner Enterprises, the largest private ...

Career timeline

*1984–1985: ''

NBA on CBS The ''NBA on CBS'' is the branding that is used for weekly broadcasts of National Basketball Association (NBA) games produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States. CBS aired NBA games from the 19 ...

'' – Color Commentator *1984–1986: ''

College Basketball on CBS ''College Basketball on CBS Sports'' (usually referred to on-air as the ''Road to the Final Four'') is the branding used for broadcasts of men's NCAA Division I basketball games that are produced by CBS Sports, for CBS, CBSSN, and Facebook. ...

'' – Color commentator *1987–1990: ''

'' – Sideline reporter *1987–1993: ''

NFL on CBS The ''NFL on CBS'' is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that are produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States. The network has aired NFL game telecasts si ...

'' – Play-by-play *1989–1990: ''

'' – Play-by-play *1990–1993, 2007: ''

'' – Play-by-play *1990: '' Major League Baseball on CBS'' – Sideline reporter *1994–2005: '' Fox NFL Sunday'' – HostNFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, Fantasy Sports News - CBSSports.com Live Scores, Stats, Schedules
*1994–1998: ''

NHL on Fox The ''NHL on Fox'' is the branding used for broadcasts of National Hockey League (NHL) games that were produced by Fox Sports and televised on the Fox network from the 1994–1995 NHL season until the 1998–1999 NHL season. NHL games continued ...

'' – Studio host *2006–present: ''

'' – Host *2008–present: '' Inside the NFL'' – Host *2014–present: ''

'' – Substitute anchor *2017–2019: ''The James Brown Show'' - host

References

External links

* * *Jaffe, Harry.
James Brown: Making Mama Proud
, ''Washingtonian'', December 1, 2008.
Brown Leaving Fox's Pregame for CBSOfficial CBS news release.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, James 1951 births Living people African-American basketball players African-American Christians African-American sports announcers African-American sports journalists American sports journalists American male journalists American television sports announcers American sports radio personalities American television reporters and correspondents Atlanta Hawks draft picks Basketball players from Maryland CBS News people College basketball announcers in the United States DeMatha Catholic High School alumni Harvard Crimson men's basketball players Major League Baseball broadcasters National Basketball Association broadcasters National Football League announcers National Hockey League broadcasters NFL Europe broadcasters Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) People from Bethesda, Maryland Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award recipients Basketball players from Washington, D.C. Sports Emmy Award winners Washington Nationals owners American men's basketball players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople