ESPN Debuts Women-Led Sports Show ‘Vibe Check' On Disney+
When sports broadcasters Elle Duncan, Andraya Carter and Chiney Ogwumike took the stage May 14 for Disney's Upfronts presentation announcing new programming, it marked a new era for ESPN—one led by women.
The trio of ESPN veterans announced they will anchor Vibe Check, a new studio show launching on Disney+ in late June. In a media landscape still dominated by male viewpoints, Vibe Check will bring women's voice to the forefront, showcasing sports analysis and conversations on their terms.
'Sports is the great equalizer,' Mike Foss, ESPN's senior vice president of Sports Studio & Entertainment, said. 'Women play sports. Men play sports. Women are fans of sports. They talk about sports.'
Vibe Check's arrival comes at an explosive time for women's sports. ESPN viewers spent 54% more time watching women's sports in 2023, including WNBA, college basketball, gymnastics and volleyball, Duncan said at the Upfronts launch.
Vibe Check will offer three episodes a week, ranging from about 30-45 minutes, providing analysis, behind-the-scenes access and informed opinions across all sports. It joins SC+ on the Disney+ platform, which launched March 3 as a daily digital version of SportsCenter.
'There's been a ton of energy around ESPN programming within Disney+,' Foss said. 'In those collaborations with Disney, they wanted more original programming, and specifically sports programming within studio. The idea emanated both from the great traction that SC+ has received, along with our ability to deliver high-quality sports studio programming.'
While Duncan, Carter and Ogwumike are the show's primary hosts, Foss Vibe Check will feature many of ESPN other respected female voices, including Hannah Storm, Laura Rutledge and Holly Rowe.
Topics for the show will reflect the hosts' connection with and commitment to women's sports, but Foss said Vibe Check will be more broadly focused and curated around its panelists' interests in all sports.
'If there's an opportunity, and seasonally speaking it's relevant to discuss women's volleyball, we're absolutely going to fit that in,' Foss said. 'Right now, the WNBA season just began, so if we were to do a show today, that's going to be basketball heavy.
'It's looking at the sports calendar and being able to measure the events that are resonating with fans.'
The decision to anchor the show with women might generate some skepticism, but Foss said the show is rooted in the talent and interests among ESPN's anchors and analysts.
'The thesis behind the show is not rooted in a gimmick,' he said. 'We have people who are passionate about sports, and my belief is that you put those people in positions to showcase their passion and their authenticity.'
While the launch of a new talk-format show may be questioned at a time that legacy panels like 'Around the Horn' are being sunsetted, Foss said the interest in sports has never been higher.
'Fandom is at an all time high,' he said. 'The vessels that we create to reflect that need to be a reflection of the time that we're in right now.'
ESPN's goal now is to match the level of fandom with offerings that meet consumers where they are and where they are going.
That includes a future focused on direct-to-consumer offerings and a commitment to digital on-demand engagement.
'It's being in tune to your audience and understanding what your audience wants,' he said. 'For me, it's creating [shows] with the right inputs and lessons that we've learned along the way but then being very open to what it could become.'
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The robotic Lincoln works, says Miller, because we lack filmed footage of him. She wishes the company had abandoned the animatronic and created an immersive exhibit that could have depicted Disney in his park. 'I strongly feel the last two minutes with the robot will do much more harm than good to Grampa's legacy,' Miller wrote in her letter to Iger. 'They will remember the robot, and not the man.' Miller has a number of letters and emails of support, some from former Imagineers, but has crossed out their names before handing them to a journalist. Most contacted for this story didn't return calls or emails, or declined to speak on the record, noting their current business relationships with the Walt Disney Co. The legacy of Disney is 'precious yet vulnerable,' said one such source, refusing to give a name because they still work with the company. 'Isn't it honorable when a granddaughter defends her grandfather? There's nothing in it for her.' Miller says she simply wants the company to respect Disney's wishes — that he never be turned into a robot. 'In all our research, we never found any documentation of Walt saying that,' Imagineer Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz said in April. 'We know that it's anecdotal and we can't speak to what was told to people in private.' And therein lies a major hurdle Miller faces. Those who Miller says knew of Disney's preferences — her mother, her father and Imagineers he was closest to, including confidant and former Imagineering chief Marty Sklar — are all dead. That leaves, unless someone else comes forward, only her. Miller, however, is realistic. Her family's biggest mistake, she argues, was selling the rights to Disney's name, likeness and portrait to the company in 1981 for $46.2 million in stock. It leaves the family little to zero say in how Disney is preserved in the park, although Imagineering says it has worked closely with the Walt Disney Family Museum and those descendants who are currently on the museum board in constructing the animatronic show. But there's one thing the Walt Disney Co. can't control, and that's Miller's voice — and her memories. On their trips to Disneyland, Miller's grandfather was happy to stop for autographs, but he also signed — in advance — the pages of an office pad. When the crowds became a bit much, he would hand a park-goer an inscribed piece of paper. 'After 10-15 minutes,' Miller recalls, 'he would say, 'Hey, I'm with the grandkids today, and we have things to do.''
