Rachel Nichols’ ESPN Show, ‘The Jump’, Cancelled In Aftermath Of Her Comments About Maria Taylor

August 26, 2021 by Nick Fenley in Sports with 0 Comments

Rachel Nichols’ ESPN Show, ‘The Jump’, Cancelled In Aftermath Of Her Comments About Maria Taylor

Rachel Nichols has just lost her ESPN show.

The network canceled The Jump, which was hosted by Rachel Nichols. As previously reported, Rachel Nichols has been embroiled in controversy since her comments about Maria Taylor, a Black sports reporter, went viral. Last year, Maria Taylor was assigned to cover the 2020 NBA finals. After the announcement, Rachel Nichols vented to Adam Mendelsohn—LeBron James‘ advisor–and complained about Maria Taylor getting the job. During their call, Nichols stated:

“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world–she covers football, she covers basketball. If you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity–which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it–like, go for it. Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or [by] taking my thing away… I just want [ESPN] to go somewhere else–it’s in my contract, by the way. This job is in my contract in writing.”

However, because she made the comments on her work laptop, Rachel Nichols‘ conversation was immediately sent to ESPN servers. The audio was subsequently shared amongst the employees–including Maria Taylor, who notably left ESPN last month for NBC Sports.

Maria Taylor

Rachel Nichols eventually apologized for her statements. However, it appears as though she is still feeling the backlash of her controversy, as The Jump has been axed. In a statement, ESPN’s senior vice president of production–David Roberts–said:

“We mutually agreed that this approach regarding our NBA coverage was best for all concerned. Rachel is an excellent reporter, host and journalist, and we thank her for her many contributions to our NBA content.”

After the news broke, Rachel Nichols commented on the decision on Twitter. She wrote:

“Got to create a whole show and spend five years hanging out with some of my favorite people talking about one of my favorite things. An eternal thank you to our amazing producers & crew–The Jump was never built to last forever but it sure was fun. More to come…”