Roku unveiled a new special spotlighting top female athletes Thursday. The project marks Omaha Productions’ latest and boldest push into women’s sports programming.
What We Know: The special, Gamechangers: America’s Top 25 Female Athletes is executive produced by Sue Bird, Alex Morgan, and Peyton Manning. Commentary comes from Olympic medalists Adam Rippon and Alysia Montaño, comedians Fortune Feimster and Jared Freid, and broadcasters including Cari Champion and Hannah Storm. Omaha Productions, best known for ESPN’s ManningCast, has released four women’s sports projects in 2026 alone, including live coverage of League One Volleyball. The company also produced The Final Third and Celebrating Pat Summitt earlier this year.
What They Said: Colin Campbell, head of development for Omaha Productions (via Variety): “The great thing about women’s sports is there are still a lot of stories that haven’t been told. There’s a lot of opportunity to go deep on different individuals. And I think that that’s where we’re going to spend our time.”
What Remains Unclear: Omaha hasn’t detailed whether Gamechangers will return as an annual franchise. Similarly, the release doesn’t specify additional live-sports rights deals beyond League One Volleyball.
What It Means: Omaha’s expansion signals growing industry confidence in women’s sports content. Meanwhile, ESPN launched Women’s Sports Sundays earlier this summer, replacing Sunday Night Baseball entirely. Together, these moves suggest media companies are betting heavily on women’s sports drawing sustained audience interest.
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John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.
