Liam McHugh (born November 2, 1977) is an American television sportscaster. He is a studio host for the

NHL on TNT The ''NHL on TNT'' is an American presentation of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by TNT Sports (formerly known as Turner Sports and later Warner Bros. Discovery Sports), and televised on TNT and streamed on Max in the United State ...

and

MLS Season Pass MLS Season Pass is a soccer streaming service operated by Apple Inc. which includes live matches from Major League Soccer (MLS). The package was launched in the 2023 Major League Soccer season as part of a new 10-year media rights agreement be ...

Apple TV Apple TV is a digital media player and a microconsole developed and marketed by Apple. It is a small piece of networking hardware that sends received media data such as video and audio to a TV or external display. Its media services include ...

. He previously worked on

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

coverage of the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

as well as

Notre Dame Fighting Irish football The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is a college football team representing the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana (CDP), Notre Dame, Indiana, north of the city of South Bend, Indiana. The team plays its home games at the ca ...

and ''

NBC Sunday Night Football ''NBC Sunday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''SNF'') is an American weekly television broadcast of National Football League (NFL) games on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock in the United States. It began airing on August 6, 2006, w ...

''. He was also perhaps the face of

NBCSN NBCSN (also known as NBC Sports Network) was an American sports television television channel, channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Lif ...

, anchoring much of its staple programming, including the NHL, Tour De France, college football, college basketball and the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

, prior to joining TNT Sports.

Early life and education

McHugh grew up in Williston Park on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

and played basketball and soccer at Herricks High School. His father, Frank McHugh, was a long-time track coach at a different high school on Long Island called Elmont. McHugh graduated from the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public university, public research university in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. ...

and received his master's degree from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 2004.

Career

Prior to joining NBC, he worked at ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in the United States primarily serving Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI" ...

'' (1999-2001), WTHI in

Terre Haute, Indiana Terre Haute ( ) is a city in Vigo County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 58,389 and Terre Haute metropolitan area, its metropolitan area had a populati ...

(2004-2007), KOKH in

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

(2007-2009), and ''

ESPN The Magazine ''ESPN The Magazine'' was an American monthly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network in Bristol, Connecticut. The first issue, with the cover line "NEXT.," was published on March 11, 1998 (cover date March 23, 1998), and featured K ...

'' (2001-2007). On April 5, 2010, ''The Daily Line'' debuted with McHugh as host. The show consisted of a four-person panel (host McHugh, handicapper Rob DeAngelis, comedian Reese Waters, and former ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

'' bunny Jenn Sterger) which discussed, often with heavy satire, sports-related topics popular that day and aired on Versus. However, the show was canceled due to low viewership on November 4, 2010. McHugh would be retained by the network to originally work on NHL coverage, mostly on ''NHL Overtime'' and'' Hockey Central''. In 2011, McHugh began the year as the host of ''NHL Live'', the network's pre- and post-game show that airs before and after each NHL telecast. He also contributed to NBC's

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup () is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ic ...

coverage, hosting Games 1 and 2. In the summer of 2011, McHugh stepped into the role of host for NBC's live daily coverage of the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

. In the fall, he contributed to

's college football coverage as the host of the newly created ''College Football Talk'', a weekly wrap up show. Additionally, he served each week as the host for the network's studio show before and after game coverage. 2012 saw McHugh return to NBC and NBCSN’s coverage of the NHL as lead studio host. He hosted ''NHL Live'' several times weekly and the '' NHL on NBC'' intermission report weekly. He finished off the 2011-2012 NHL season in his biggest role to date, hosting every game of the

2012 Stanley Cup Finals The 2012 Stanley Cup Finals was the Stanley Cup Finals, championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) season, and the culmination of the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs. The Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference playoff champion 20 ...

. He served as a reporter for NBC's

Super Bowl XLVI Super Bowl XLVI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

pre-game coverage. McHugh expanded his portfolio even further as he was to be a part of

's coverage of the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. McHugh hosted the afternoon action on NBCSN daily throughout the games. In the fall, he continued to host NBC's college football studio show alongside

Doug Flutie Douglas Richard Flutie (born October 23, 1962) is an American former professional Gridiron football, football quarterback who played for 21 seasons. He played 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), eight seasons in the Canadian Footb ...

and newcomer

Hines Ward Hines Edward Ward Jr. (born March 8, 1976) is an American American football, football coach and former player who is the wide receivers coach for Arizona State Sun Devils football, Arizona State. He played as a wide receiver in the National Foo ...

. In November 2012, McHugh hosted NBCSN’s Carrier Classic Countdown, live from the deck of the USS Bataan, as well as pre-game, halftime and post-game coverage. He made his Winter Olympics debut as a hockey host at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi for NBC. For the final 6 weeks of the 2015-2016

season, McHugh filled in as the lead studio host for the Monday afternoon

games while Rebecca Lowe was on maternity leave. He continued in that capacity for the next five

seasons when he has no NHL responsibilities for

. During the

2017 NFL season The 2017 NFL season was the 98th season in the history of the National Football League (NFL) and the 52nd of the Super Bowl era. The season began on September 7, 2017, with the Kansas City Chiefs defeating the defending Super Bowl LI champion ...

, McHugh was named the new studio host for NBC’s joint coverage of Thursday Night Football with

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League NTP and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and N ...

. He replaced Bob Costas, who stepped down from most of his on-air roles at NBC, including the Olympics. Shortly before

Super Bowl LII Super Bowl LII was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2017 season. As a rematch of Super Bowl XXXIX from 13 years earlier, the game was between the National Football Conferen ...

, it was announced that McHugh would join Dan Patrick as a studio co-host for the game, filling in for

Mike Tirico Michael Todd Tirico (; born December 13, 1966) is an American sportscaster. He is currently the lead play-by-play announcer for ''NBC Sunday Night Football'', having replaced Al Michaels in 2022, and is set to become the lead play-by-play anno ...

as the latter prepared to anchor the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

, set to open a few days later. McHugh later joined Football Night in America full-time starting with the

2018 NFL season The 2018 NFL season was the 99th season of the National Football League (NFL) and the 53rd of the Super Bowl era. The season began on September 6, 2018, with the NFL Kickoff Game with the defending Super Bowl LII champion 2018 Philadelphia Eag ...

, taking Tirico’s spot, as Tirico moved to the studio to replace the departed Patrick. Following NBC's last

Stanley Cup Finals The Stanley Cup Finals in ice hockey (also known as the Stanley Cup Final among various media, ) is the annual championship series of the National Hockey League (NHL). The winner is awarded the Stanley Cup, North America's oldest professional spo ...

and their coverage of the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

, McHugh departed NBC to join TNT Sports for their NHL coverage. McHugh joined Kenny Albert,

Brendan Burke Brendan Gilmore Burke (December 8, 1988 – February 5, 2010) was an athlete and student manager at Miami University for the Miami RedHawks men's ice hockey, RedHawks men's ice hockey team. The youngest son of Brian Burke (ice hockey), Brian Bu ...

Eddie Olczyk Edward Walter Olczyk Jr. (; born August 16, 1966) is an American sportscaster and former professional ice hockey player. He spent 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), playing as a center for the Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Maple Le ...

, Keith Jones, Anson Carter, and John Forslund, who all jumped from NBC to TNT. McHugh's on-site position on Football Night in America was filled by Jac Collinsworth. In 2023, McHugh was named to

’s

broadcast team, as the lead host of their whiparound studio coverage. McHugh continued on as TNT’s NHL studio host. He left Apple TV following the 2024 season.

References

External links

NBC bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:McHugh, Liam American radio sports announcers American television sports announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Cycling announcers Living people NFL announcers National Hockey League broadcasters Notre Dame Fighting Irish football announcers Olympic Games broadcasters Place of birth missing (living people) S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications alumni University at Buffalo alumni People from Williston Park, New York Herricks High School alumni 1977 births

Early life and education

Career

See also

References

External links