Robin Roberts: Explore the Broadcaster’s Journalism Career

Robin René Roberts is an American television broadcaster and journalist who has held an impressive breadth of on-screen jobs, from sports anchoring to coanchoring ABC’s Good Morning America.

Robin Roberts grew up in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where she played many sports and dreamt of becoming a professional athlete one day. After a successful high school career on the basketball team, she landed a sports scholarship at Southeastern Louisiana University, where she would play college basketball.

She discovered sports journalism in Louisiana and dreamed of landing a job at ESPN. Years later, Robin accepted a second job offer from ESPN, making her the first Black female anchor on ESPN’s flagship program, SportsCenter. She left ESPN in 2005 to serve as the coanchor of Good Morning America, which began a fruitful relationship with ABC. She hosted the Academy Awards red carpet preshow for the network in 2009 and 2011.

After battling and surviving breast cancer, Robin was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder and required a bone marrow transplant (which her sister, Sally-Ann Roberts, provided). She has since dedicated much of her time to spreading awareness about bone marrow transplants. Around the time of her transplant in 2012, Robin helped increase the number of registered donors for Be The Match, a nonprofit organization.

Robin Roberts has had a long and successful career in broadcasting. Here is a brief timeline of her road to becoming one of the most successful broadcast journalists in the US:

• 1983: After graduating from college, Robin’s first broadcasting job was a part-time position as the weekend sports anchor in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on WDAM. She was offered another more prestigious, higher-paying, full-time job as a news anchor at that time, but she opted for the part-time gig because she knew her passion was in sports, and it would help her blaze a trail to her dream job at ESPN.
• 1984: Nine months after moving to Hattiesburg, the network she turned down for the full-time job called her about an opening in the sports department. Robin accepted and relocated to WLOX in Biloxi, Mississippi, where she worked as a sports anchor and reporter for two and a half years.
• 1986: Robin signed on as sports anchor and reporter for WSMV-TV in Nashville, Tennessee, where she stayed for another two years.
• 1988: Robin landed a reporting and anchoring job in Atlanta, Georgia, covering professional sports teams like the Braves. The role gave her the experience she needed to feel ready for ESPN the next time they offered her a position.
• 1990–2005: In 1990, Robin accepted her dream job at ESPN, hosting SportsCenter and contributing to NFL Primetime. Around 1995, Robin began contributing to Good Morning America as a featured reporter.
• 2005: Robin accepted a coanchor position on the Good Morning America program, taking over Diane Sawyer’s position. When Hurricane Katrina hit the same year, she reported for ABC News from her Gulf Coast hometown, which was hit hard by the devastating storm.
• 2012–2013: Robin was diagnosed with a rare bone marrow disorder called myelodysplasia (MDS), years after undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer. She shared her experience with the illness on GMA in front of millions of viewers, educating scores of people who had not previously known about the affliction. She allowed cameras to follow her medical journey. Robin’s commitment to spreading awareness over MDS eventually led to a surge in viable bone marrow donors flooding the national registry.
• 2014: Robin launched Rock’n Robin Productions, a full-service broadcasting company. The independent production company covers a variety of programs, such as digital short series, live events, news specials, and sports programming. Two of RRP’s most notable productions include Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia, an Emmy-nominated Mahalia Jackson biopic, and Tuskegee Airmen: Legacy of Courage, a History Channel special program exploring the legacy of these distinguished WWII pilots.
• 2021: The broadcaster launched the first season of her miniseries, Disney’s Turning the Tables with Robin Roberts, where she discusses various intimate topics (such as identity and insecurities) with celebrity guests. During the summer, Robin made her debut as a guest host for Jeopardy! She also hosted a landmark interview in her career with President Barack Obama for Good Morning America.

Robin has written many books about sports and her personal life, including the following titles:

1. 1. Basketball Year: What It's Like to Be a Woman Pro (2000): In this non-fiction book, Robin discusses the lives of female professional athletes and what it took to catapult them to greatness.
2. 2. Which Sport Is Right For You? (2001): The broadcaster wrote this book as a guide for young female athletes. This book aims to help young girls figure out which sport is right for them and outlines the necessary skills for success as an athlete.
3. 3. Sports Injuries (2001): Robin discusses the various injuries and afflictions that young athletes suffer and how to prevent and treat them before they cause permanent damage.
4. 4. From the Heart: Seven Rules to Live By (2007): Robin details her professional trajectory and life experiences becoming a successful news anchor through the motif of outlining even rules to set readers on a path to success.
5. 5. From the Heart: Eight Rules to Live By (2008): By 2008, Robin published another version of her original memoir, changing the number of rules in the title from seven to eight to include her life experiences following her battle with breast cancer.
6. 6. Bedtime Bear's Big Surprise (2011): This illustrated children’s book follows a group of children on a zoo adventure as they learn what different animals look like and what it means to be unselfish and a good friend.
7. 7. Everybody’s Got Something (2015): This touching memoir details Robin’s early life and many of the lessons she has learned through her breast cancer struggle, the loss of her mother, and how family and friends can make all the difference in your life.
8. 8. Brighter by the Day: Waking Up to New Hopes and Dreams (2022): Robin’s upcoming book, which focuses on cultivating optimism, will be released in March 2022.

GMA’s Robin Roberts has earned many awards and accolades over her long and successful career as a broadcast journalist. Here is a brief timeline of her awards and accolades:

• 1987: The prolific broadcaster earned the Nashville Scene Sportscaster of the Year Award while working as a sports anchor and reporter for WSMV-TV in Nashville
• 1994: Four years after she began her dream job as ESPN, Robin received an induction into the Women's Institute on Sport and the Education Foundation's Hall of Fame.
• 2001: Robin was named a “Louisiana Legend” by Louisiana Public Broadcasting. In the same year, Robin received the Mel Greenberg Media Award, an annual award given to members of the media by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA).
• 2007-2009: Good Morning America receives three consecutive Daytime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Morning Program with Robin as coanchor.
  
• 2012: The Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inducted Robin for her contributions to the sport. In the same year, Robin also earned a Peabody Award for her coverage of the rare blood disorder she was battling at the time, myelodysplastic syndrome.
• 2013: Robin received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs in recognition of her exceptional career and her strength, bravery, and openness about her life experiences.
• 2014: Robin received the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. That same year, Robin was named one of ESPNW’s Impact 25, along with Woman of the Year for the December issue of Glamour magazine.
• 2018: Robin received the Radio Television Digital News Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award and the National Association of Broadcasters Distinguished Service Award.
• 2019: Robin earned the Sager Strong Award by the National Basketball Association (NBA) in recognition of her courageous trailblazing in the world of journalism and commitment to spreading awareness about bone marrow transplants.
• 2021: Robin received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Television Movie for her work as the executive producer on the Lifetime original movie Mahalia. Robin produced the Mahalia Jackson biopic with her production company Rock’n Robin Productions.

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