Atlanta native Elle Duncan takes the leap as new Netflix live sports host
Atlanta native Elle Duncan was comfortable at ESPN after nearly a decade at the “SportsCenter” anchor desk.
But last year, Netflix posed an intriguing offer: Become the streaming service’s very first sports anchor to cover a wide array of live events. Duncan was skeptical at first.
“Netflix was very new to the space,” Duncan said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before hosting the MLB Home Run Derby on Monday. “What will production look like? How committed is Netflix to sports? I had stability at ESPN. I’d like to think I could have worked there forever. I wasn’t unhappy.”
But Duncan was also intrigued, getting in the front door of what could end up being a major component of Netflix’s broad-based lineup.
“There is this idea of building something,” she said. “I put myself in the shoes of the people building ESPN in the 1970s. I read the books on the network’s history. It’s become this mother ship for sports. At Netflix, to have my opinion and my experience valued, to build the dynamic and culture there, that was really cool to me.”
So she took the leap.
Gabe Spitzer, vice president of sports for Netflix, said the streaming service hired Duncan because her “ability to seamlessly move between hard-hitting sports analysis and warm, personality-driven cultural hosting makes her a perfect fit at Netflix. She immediately adds credibility and familiar star power to our global programming slate.”
Duncan now lives in the metro New York area with her husband, Omar Abdul Ali, and two young children. The Netflix schedule enables her to spend more time with her family for longer stretches.
A career pivot
Her first gig for Netflix, in January, was sports-adjacent: “Skyscraper Live,” where free solo climber Alex Honnold ascended one of the world’s tallest skyscrapers in Taipei, Taiwan.
“You sometimes are looking for affirmation you did the right thing,” Duncan said. “While I was sitting there in Taiwan watching this man climb a building, I thought that I never would have done this if I hadn’t taken this chance. To start out with something so out of the gate, so different, was crazy.”
She then hosted Netflix’s first MLB game on opening day between the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. The big thrill was working with baseball legends Albert Pujols and Barry Bonds, who were analysts that day.
“I told Barry I had a poster of him growing up,” she said. “It was so wild sitting next to him.”
She covered a boxing match featuring British heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury’s comeback in April in London, followed by Netflix’s first live MMA fight with UFC champion Ronda Rousey a month later at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
The challenge, she said, is that with every sport, she works with a different production team and different analysts.
“I’m not the expert,” she said. “My goal is to learn my desk. I watch podcasts on my analysts so I know what they’re high on, what they like to talk about. I’m the glue. I provide context. I’m the point guard. I’m here to help you score.”
And with sports she is less familiar with, she has worked hard to ensure she gets the terms right: “In MMA, it’s not a ring. It’s a cage. Those are the types of things I make sure I’m buttoned up on.”
‘The gift of gab’
Duncan grew up in Powder Springs, a jock in a jock family playing fast-pitch softball and admiring Robin Roberts when the current “Good Morning America” host was on ESPN in the 1990s and early 2000s. (Roberts made a pit stop in Atlanta in the late 1980s as a sports reporter at WAGA-TV and host on V-103.)
After graduating from McEachern High School in 2001, she briefly dabbled in acting in Los Angeles but returned to Atlanta to focus on broadcasting.
At age 19, she landed an internship at 790/The Zone doing entertainment news for the 2 Live Stews. Doug Stewart, one of the hosts, said he could immediately see she had “very obvious charisma.”
“In this business, a lot of people just can’t keep talking when they begin tripping over themselves,” Stewart said. “She was always able to rattle through whatever story she was talking about. She has the gift of gab.” At the same time, he said, “she’s super professional, always prepared and just very natural. It’s almost like she was born to do these things.”
Even when Duncan worked on non-sports jobs, like midday host at V-103, she carved out time to report for the Atlanta Falcons Radio Network and do in-game sideline reporting for the Atlanta Hawks. While getting paid to do traffic for 11Alive, she asked news director Ellen Crooke to let her go to Falcons media days and do packages on the side.
Crooke, in a text, said letting Duncan do sports was a no-brainer: “I still remember her coverage of Olympics on 11Alive and used her work to train others in the future.”
In a People magazine interview, Duncan said Crooke allowed her to cover opening day for the Braves. She said she came in thinking: “I’m going to cook. I’m going to be so good.” Instead, she said, “I was horrible. I was so bad.”
The lesson: “Confidence without preparation really doesn’t mean anything. And I was so overconfident that I didn’t prepare in the way that I should.”
Duncan said she sent her best 11Alive sports pieces to New England Sports Network, where she earned her first full-time sports job in 2014.
That led to her gig at ESPN.
“I met friends and family for life there,” Duncan said. “Undoubtedly I wouldn’t be here without them taking a liking to me. They poured a lot into me. It was wonderful — no notes!”
So far, Netflix is still in ramp-up mode with live sports, so Duncan’s schedule will gradually get busier.
Besides the Home Run Derby, there’s an MLB game between the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies at the “Field of Dreams” in Dyersville, Iowa, on Aug. 13. In October, there’s an exhibition of six major tennis stars in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. And Duncan wlll take part in five NFL games next season, including two on Christmas Day.
Next year, Netflix for the first time will air all of FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer over a span of five weeks, by far its biggest commitment to sports to date.
“That is what is so exciting about doing this job,” Duncan said. “Sure, I’ll be doing baseball and football and combat sports. But next year, I’ll get to do the Westminster Dog Show! I never imagined I’d ever get that opportunity!”
IF YOU WATCH
“MLB T-Mobile Home Run Derby,” 8 p.m. Monday, Netflix