ESPN's Elle Duncan Talks New Opportunities and Her Path to the Sportscenter Desk

Elle Duncan has lived multiple lives in this world we call sports and entertainment media. You know her now as one of the main faces of ESPN, where she co-hosts the weekday 6pm EST edition of SportsCenter while also making appearances on other ESPN shows. You've also probably seen/heard some of her recent hot takes that have come by way of her new podcast The Elle Duncan Show. She co-hosts with fellow sports media personality Gary Striewski every Monday and Thursday, when the duo reacts to the biggest storylines and viral content around the world. For Elle, the success she's built on the World Wide Leader of Sports has been a culmination of the groundwork she laid down in the earlier phases of her career. We caught up with the Duncan over Zoom to hear about her self-described "non-traditional" journey.

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"I originally thought I wanted to be an actress," she says, kicking off a conversation with ONE37pm. "I left college after my freshman year, and moved out to Los Angeles for pilot season. I was out there for six months, ran out of money, didn't get an agent—it was a mess!" While acting didn't work out at that particular time, Duncan never doubted that entertainment is simply in her bloodline. Realizing that she didn't want to play other people and was simply content playing herself, sports was what Elle refers to as the "baseline" for everything in her life. "My whole life has been rooted in sports. We play it, we love it, we watch it. My parents are both die-hard sports lovers."

Switching her major from theater to broadcasting/communications, Duncan's next path was a series divine opportunities that she fell into. Prior to joining ESPN in 2016, she worked stints with V-103, 11 Alive, the Atlanta Hawks, and NESN (New England Sports Network). "I was an intern on radio—never thought I wanted to do radio," she tells me adding: "Radio is what really helped me build the foundation of storytelling, ad-libbing, thinking on your feet, stretching—all things that we do in television."

Atlanta is the place she really got to hone her craft before making the official jump to sports broadcasting at NESN in 2014. In fact, per Duncan, most ATLiens still know her as "the traffic girl" from her time there. While the media stars laughs about it now, that label is in fact the reason why she took the job with NESN in the first place. "That's why I ended up moving away to Boston because I knew in Atlanta that they were always going to see me as the traffic girl that did hip hop there." Duncan's time with the network also included a period where she worked for the Boston Red Sox, which she describes as being "the most intense sports city in the world."

Two years later she landed in audition with ESPN, and it's here that we've really seen her star rise. In life, we say the smaller stages prepares us for the bigger stages, but when you finally reach the biggest stage you've been aiming for, are you truly ready? "It was more philosophical than anything—my ultimate goal was to be a SportsCenter anchor," she says before diving into the great predecessors that came before her. "I loved Robin Roberts and Stuart Scott—you climb, calculate, and make all these moves, and all of a sudden you get to where you want and are like 'oh shit!'"

The biggest adjustment? Ingratiating herself with her colleagues and wanting to figure out the scope of how people consume sports. "I'm a SportsCenter anchor, we do not focus on one sport. For example, I'm not an NFL person," she notes. "I have to know a little bit about everything that's happening because on my show we can talk a little bit about what's going on in all sports." Learning how to be connected to everything occurring in sports at all times is something that Duncan says was "incredibly overwhelming." Once she got that down though, there was absolutely nothing holding her back.

Fast forward a couple years later, and Elle Duncan is one of the top new faces on the network. At the same time, however, her personal life was thriving and having a family was something that was top of mind for her and her husband. The media/entertainment world can be tricky for women in the sense that it can take years for you to get your dream job. The irony in that is that the timelines between you reaching the biggest stage and wanting to start your family can clash. In the past, many women have had to make a choice between one or the other. Some women are still having to make that choice unfortunately.

So, I asked Elle the rather invasive question of if she was concerned about whether or not having kids would impact the trajectory of her career. "100 percent," she confirms before adding: "The women that I have talked to in this space have been concerned about this, because—for us—its unique in the sense of seasons and timing. You're not only thinking about whether or not it's the right time, but also about if it's the right season. For example, if you're an NFL sideline reporter, you don't want to be pregnant during the Super Bowl. That sucks! There's so many layers to how you have to family plan in a way that men don't ever have to think about."

From the time Elle was in her early twenties, she was adamant about having her first child at 35, her second child at 38, and being done having kids at 40. And guess what? She had her first child at 35, her second child at 38, and now at 40, she's done. She also never feared that there would be any backlash from ESPN for starting her family. "Maybe I was naive, but I never feared any retribution. I love working here, and I can't imagine working at a place that would somehow turn on me for having a baby. If they had, I thought to myself that it was better to know upfront, because that wouldn't have been the place for me to work at."

Coming back to work after giving birth was, as she says, "all on her." timing wise. My follow-up was the slightly-less-invasive but still kind of nosy question of how she balanced both in those early years. Duncan has always been known for keeping it real, and real is what she kept it with her response: "I'm really starting to come to the conclusion that work-life balance is a myth," she shoots, continuing: "It just isn't a thing that happens particularly well. You can balance, you just aren't balancing everything to the best of your ability. It's mathematically impossible to give 100% at work, 100% at home, and 100% to yourself for mental health and wellness. The math don't math! I'm a rare situation because I have a perfect storm of events that help make this entire thing go. Unlike most families, I make the money for a nanny; my husband and I have the lifestyle where he can leave his job and focus on real estate to be more flexible. I had my parents retire and move here from Atlanta—I have the most help.

"We've got to stop telling women it takes a village. It does take a village, but you have to pay for it. If you can't pay for the village, you've got to have super eager and willing family members willing to put everything in their life aside to help you. Who has that? That's not a typical blueprint for success. We've got to stop dangling the myth that if you work harder, do this or do that, you'll be able to achieve this perfect balance. If I pan this camera, my closet looks like a shit show!"

In the words of Mariah Carey, Duncan is "doing the best with what she's got," and she's been able to find her own individual balance of loving her family and job. Calling herself a "workaholic," the many years that Duncan's put in has resulted in a brand new exciting era—The Elle Duncan Show, which is literally in its infancy. Despite being brand new, Elle has already delivered some viral moments thus far as a result of her hot takes. The show is fun, free, and going with the flow. I asked Duncan if this new podcast is the biggest moment of her career thus far. "I try not to look at it that way—I've had some really exciting moments and opportunities in every phase of my career. I don't want to rank them because it devalues how important they were at the time."

Fair enough.

This show is, however, her Batman moment as Duncan has "happily been a sidekick" for many years. Simply put, The Elle Duncan Show is all her. "I wanted to consume as much information as possible and figure out what I wanted to add to the already bountiful options out there," she says continuing: "What excites me the most is doing the show with Gary, who also worked with me at NESN in Boston, and the concept of sports and pop culture crossing over—The E (entertainment) in ESPN so to speak. It's cool to have a show where you can literally say whatever you want. It feels really good and like a nod to all of the amazing co-hosts I've had in my life that have poured into me."

The future is certainly bright for The Elle Duncan Show, but while Duncan has big goals, she's just simply letting it rock. "In the next month or so we'll take a look at the things that are resonating and feeling good. I would be lying if I were to say there isn't a goal for this to grow and evolve, but I'm also a big proponent of allowing the universe to meet you where you are. If you put the work in, events just start aligning."

You've seen Elle Duncan, but you never seen her quite like this.

You can continue to keep up with Elle via Instagram and X.

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