Bonnie Lynn Bernstein (born August 16, 1970) is an American sports

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and media executive. She has been named one of the most accomplished female sportscasters in history by the American Sportscasters Association, spending nearly 20 years as a reporter and studio host at ESPN, ABC and CBS Sports, covering the NFL, NBA, MLB and college football and basketball. Bernstein is currently the founder and CEO of Walk Swiftly Productions, a multimedia production company specializing in non-scripted sports and entertainment content. Bonnie Bernsteinb

Early life and education

Bernstein was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, and grew up in Howell, New Jersey. She was salutatorian of her class at Howell High School, where she is a member of the school's Hall of Fame. Bernstein was a four-time MVP of the Rebels gymnastics team, and also received varsity letters in indoor track and outdoor track and field, where she competed in hurdles, the 4x400 relay, javelin and shotput. Bernstein attended the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

, where she graduated ''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' with a degree in

broadcast journalism Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, ...

. She was a four-time Academic All-America in

gymnastics Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...

, receiving the Thomas M. Fields award for excellence in academics and athletics. Bernstein maintains close ties to her alma mater, and is on the Board of Visitors for the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland and the advisory board for the Povich Center for Sports Journalism.

Career

Early years

Bernstein spent three years climbing the local broadcast ladder, launching her career as the news and sports director at WXJN-FM radio in Lewes, Delaware. She transitioned to television at WMDT-TV in

Salisbury, Maryland Salisbury ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Wicomico County, Maryland, United States. Salisbury is the largest city in Eastern Shore of Maryland, the state's Eastern Shore region, with a population of 33,050 at the 2020 United States census ...

as the ABC affiliate's weekend news anchor, then became

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

's, first-ever female weekday sports anchor at

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

affiliate KRNV-TV.

ESPN

Bernstein first joined ESPN in 1995 as its Chicago Bureau Chief, where she covered

Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player, who is currently a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Ass ...

and the

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded on January 16 ...

' record-setting championship run (1996–98). She also was a correspondent for '' Sunday NFL Countdown'' and '' College GameDay'' and filed reports for ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande, Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...

'' during the

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

post-season and the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship.

CBS Sports

Bernstein joined

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

in 1998 as the lead sideline reporter for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championships and feature reporter for '' The NFL Today''. The following year, she transitioned to sideline reporting for the ''

NFL on CBS ''NFL on CBS'' is an American television sports presentation show broadcast by CBS. It aired from September 30, 1956 to January 23, 1994. The show returned since September 6, 1998. The branding is used for the presentation of the National Foot ...

''. She worked with the

Verne Lundquist Merton Laverne Lundquist Jr. (born July 17, 1940) is an American former sportscaster known for his long career with CBS Sports. Early life Lundquist was born in Duluth, Minnesota. He graduated from Austin High School in Austin, Texas, before ...

Dick Enberg Richard Alan Enberg (January 9, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of an approximately 60-year career, he provided play-by-play of various sports for several radio and television networks, including N ...

and

Dan Dierdorf Daniel Lee Dierdorf (born June 29, 1949) is an American sportscaster and former professional football player. He played 13 seasons (1971–1983) as an offensive tackle for the St. Louis Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). Dierdor ...

crew until 2003, when she was promoted to the lead crew of

Jim Nantz James William Nantz III (born May 17, 1959) is an American sportscaster who has worked on telecasts of the National Football League (NFL), NCAA Division I men's basketball, the NBA, and the PGA Tour for CBS Sports since the 1980s. He has ancho ...

and

Phil Simms Phillip Martin Simms (born November 3, 1955) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons with the New York Giants. After playing college football for the Morehead Sta ...

. Bernstein covered

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

s XXXV and

XXXVIII 38 (thirty-eight) is the natural number following 37 and preceding 39. In mathematics *38 ! − 1 yields which is the 16th factorial prime. *There is no answer to the equation φ(''x'') = 38, making 38 a nontotient. * 37 and 38 are the first ...

for the network and during Super Bowl XXXVIII, became the first correspondent ever to cover the game for both network television and network radio, filing reports for

and

Westwood One Radio Westwood may refer to: Companies and brands *Westwood, Baillie, 19th-century engineering and shipbuilding company, London *Westwood One (1976–2011), a former American radio network based in New York City *Westwood One, an American radio and medi ...

. Upon signing with CBS/Westwood One Radio in 2001, Bernstein often pulled "double duty" during the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

season, covering a Sunday game for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

and ''

Monday Night Football ''Monday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''MNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that air on Monday nights. It originally ran on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from 1970 NFL season, 1970 t ...

'' for radio. In addition to her NFL and college basketball duties, Bernstein hosted the

NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship The NCAA women's gymnastics tournament is an annual competition sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to determine the team and individual national champions of women's gymnastics, collegiate gymnastics among its memb ...

and CBS' anthology series, ''Championships of the NCAA'', and was a studio host for ''CBS SportsDesk'' and ''At The Half'', CBS Sports' college basketball halftime studio show. Bernstein also covered

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

and

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympi ...

for the network and hosted the U.S. Open Tennis Championships studio show and the Hambletonian.

Return to ESPN

In July 2006, Bernstein rejoined ESPN as the lead college football reporter for ESPN on ABC and the

field reporter In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present tense. There are two main types of sports broadcast ...

for ''

Sunday Night Baseball ''Sunday Night Baseball'' is an exclusive weekly telecast of a Major League Baseball game that airs Sundays at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ESPN during the regular season. The games are preceded most weeks by the studio show '' Baseball Tonight: Sun ...

'' with

Jon Miller Jon Miller (born October 11, 1951) is an American sportscaster, known primarily for his broadcasts of Major League Baseball. Since 1997, he has been employed as a play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants. He was also a baseball ann ...

and

Joe Morgan Joe Leonard Morgan (September 19, 1943 – October 11, 2020) was an American professional baseball second baseman who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, Houston Colt .45s / Astros, Cincinnati Reds, San Fran ...

. On October 11, 2006, five days after experiencing severe leg pain while covering the Texas-Oklahoma

Red River Rivalry The Oklahoma–Texas football rivalry is a college football rivalry game between border rivals Texas and Oklahoma. The two teams first played each other in 1900, and the rivalry has been renewed annually since 1929 for a total of 120 games as ...

, doctors discovered life-threatening blood clots in both of Bernstein's lungs (

pulmonary emboli Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream (embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include shortness of breath, chest pain particularly upon breathin ...

) that originated in her left leg (

deep vein thrombosis Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a type of venous thrombosis involving the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein, most commonly in the legs or pelvis. A minority of DVTs occur in the arms. Symptoms can include pain, swelling, redness, and enl ...

). She returned to ESPN and ABC several weeks later, but reduced her travel schedule the following season as a precautionary health measure, shifting focus to studio hosting many of ESPN's high-profile shows, including ''

NFL Live ''NFL Live'' (stylized as ''NFL Live presented by FanDuel Sportsbook'' for sponsorship reasons) is an American National Football League (NFL) studio show, currently airing Monday through Friday at 4:00 p.m ET on sports cable channel ESPN, and ...

'', ''

Jim Rome Is Burning James Phillip Rome (born October 14, 1964) is an American sports radio host. His talk show, '' The Jim Rome Show'', is syndicated by Westwood One. Broadcasting from a studio near Los Angeles, California, Rome hosts ''The Jim Rome Show'' on rad ...

'', ''

Outside the Lines ''Outside the Lines'' is an American sports news and analysis program that was broadcast by ESPN from 1990 to 2022. The series featured segments with discussions and investigative journalism surrounding prominent headlines and topics within spor ...

'', '' First Take'' and '' College Football Live''.

Radio hosting

In September 2009, Bernstein was named co-host of ''

The Michael Kay Show ''The Michael Kay Show'' is a sports radio talk show airing on the New York City radio station WHSQ 880 ESPN New York, hosted by New York Yankees television play-by-play broadcaster Michael Kay. New York Rangers pre and post-game radio host Don ...

'' on

1050 ESPN Radio WEPN (1050 kHz) is a sports radio station licensed to New York, New York. The station is owned-and-operated by Good Karma Brands and its transmitter site is located in North Bergen, New Jersey. The 1050 AM facility in New York signed on in 19 ...

in New York. She also covered the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

and hosted specialty programming during the

2009–10 NFL playoffs The National Football League playoffs for the 2009 season began on January 9, 2010. The postseason tournament concluded with the New Orleans Saints defeating the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV, 31–17, on February 7, at Sun Life Stadium ...

. In July 2010, Bernstein was given her own daily NFL show, ''New York Football Live'', co-hosted by Jets linebacker Greg Buttle.

Campus Insiders

In April 2013, Bernstein was named vice president of Content and Brand Development for Campus Insiders, a digital partnership between Silver Chalice Ventures, founded by

and

White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The club plays its home games at Rate Fie ...

owner

Jerry Reinsdorf Jerry Michael Reinsdorf (born February 25, 1936) is an American sports executive and businessman who is the owner of the NBA's Chicago Bulls and MLB's Chicago White Sox. He started his professional life as a tax attorney with the Internal Re ...

, and

IMG College Learfield (often stylized as LEARFIELD) is a collegiate sports marketing company, representing more than 200 of the nation's top collegiate properties including the NCAA and its 89 championships, NCAA Football, leading conferences, and many of th ...

, the nation's largest collegiate sports marketing company. Bernstein was also the on-air "face" of the network, hosting daily studio shows during the college football season and NCAA Basketball Championship. Her off-air responsibilities included creating original programming for the network, developing and securing new sponsor partnerships, and designing brand extensions that enhanced the reach of CI's digital and social platforms.

Walk Swiftly Productions

In January 2017, Bernstein founded Walk Swiftly Productions, where she is CEO. Through WSP and her consultancy, Velvet Hammer Media, Bernstein collaborates with some of sports’ most prominent organizations, including the NCAA and the College Football Playoff (CFP). In 2019, ESPN's docuseries, ''GOOD GAME: UC Irvine,'' produced by WSP and executive produced by Bernstein, received the Tempest Award for "Best Esports-Themed Program;", and CMT's ''Country on Campus'' received nominations for "Best Music Series" and "Best Sports and Recreation" series at the Cynopsis Short Form Video Awards''.'' Other notable WSP titles include the XFL's signature series, “For the Love of Football" and the Audible Originals audio series, ''She Got Game.''

Other broadcast work

Bernstein is the only female ever to solo fill-in host for the syndicated radio and TV program, ''

The Dan Patrick Show ''The Dan Patrick Show'' is a syndicated radio and television sports talk show, hosted by former ESPN personality Dan Patrick. It is currently produced by Patrick and is syndicated to radio stations by Premiere Radio Networks, within and inde ...

'' and appears as a guest commentator on several news networks, including

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

and

FOX News Channel The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City, U.S. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ow ...

, to discuss prominent sports stories.

Notes and references

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bernstein, Bonnie American television sports announcers American sports radio personalities Howell High School (New Jersey) alumni People from Howell Township, New Jersey American women sports commentators Maryland Terrapins women's gymnasts ESPN people American television reporters and correspondents Sportspeople from Brooklyn American tennis commentators Major League Baseball broadcasters American horse racing announcers Figure skating commentators College football announcers NFL announcers College basketball announcers in the United States Gymnastics broadcasters Track and field broadcasters 1970 births Living people Jewish American sports announcers American women television journalists University of Maryland, College Park alumni 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women