During the Premier League season, soccer or football fans can tune into Rebecca Lowe hosting the studio show to get them set for the weekend’s games. However, if Lowe hadn’t taken one opportunity a decade ago, she might not be where she is today.
Lowe was a guest on the Laughter Permitted with Julie Foudy podcast and said that a little over a decade ago, she thought she had reached the point where she wasn’t going to be seen as more than a sideline reporter. Then, she got an offer to be a part of ESPN’s coverage of the Women’s World Cup in Germany.
“I was at a point in my career where I was thinking I’m never really going to get to where I wanted to get to and I was having thoughts about I’m 10 years in, you know what, I think I’ve reached the point where no one is going to take me any more seriously than being a sideline reporter and I’m never going to be a host and I think I’m going to probably start thinking about another career.
“ESPN UK, who I was the sideline reporter for the Premier League for 4 years during that time said to me that ESPN USA would like you to go to Germany to do the Women’s World Cup. I’m thinking I don’t think I want to do that. I said to Paul [her husband], I don’t think I want to do that, what’s it going to lead to? It’s literally going to lead to nothing. I just don’t want to do it. He was like, you’re going. When my husband says you’re going, I’m going.”
Well, Lowe took that chance and it ended up leading to being a part of ESPN’s EURO 2012 coverage the following year and one person took notice of her work, who is now her boss at NBC.
“That led to doing the EUROS the following summer in Bristol and weirdly, who was watching that? My now boss, Pierre Moossa… Pierre was watching EURO 2012 and the rest was history. The 2011 World Cup was a huge part of my journey.”
As the studio host, Lowe is not a fan of when the host is the start of the show because she wants to represent the fan at home.
“I don’t like shows where the host is the star. I just don’t think that’s what you are there for, whether that’s on radio or TV. What do I know? I’ve never played the game. Literally, my job is to represent the person at home watching….I don’t like it when it’s the other way around.”
While the Premier League studio show does have an order format, Lowe mentioned that there is no script and that the whole plan can go out the window depending upon what happens in the first game that day.
“We don’t have a script, we have a vague running order format. Then, we just react as we go depending upon what happens. There’s a rough plan, but very often the entire format from between Game 1 and 2 goes out the window and I just have to put a big line through it and start again.”
