Amazon is staying in-house with its lead NBA studio host, hiring feature reporter and star interviewer Taylor Rooks for pregame, halftime and postgame coverage starting in late 2025 when Prime Video’s new 11-year package to broadcast pro basketball begins.
Richard Deitsch of The Athletic reported that Rooks will join lead announcer Ian Eagle and studio analyst Dirk Nowitzki at Prime Video as the streamer fills out its NBA broadcast team.
Rooks, who has contributed longform features for Prime Video’s broadcast of Thursday Night Football since 2022, will land the coveted role of covering the sport she is most connected with. For several years, the 32-year-old has hosted a digital interview show (now called Taylor Rooks X and streaming on Max) for TNT Sports and has become a go-to newsmaker for NBA athletes. She also hosts the Two Personal podcast with Joy Taylor. This fall, Rooks debuted as an NBA sideline reporter for TNT.
JUST IN: Amazon has a verbal agreement with Taylor Rooks to be the lead host of its NBA pregame, halftime and postgame shows, sources tell @richarddeitsch.
Details:https://t.co/VnoRQzKVxN pic.twitter.com/hNkuJN2CPo
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) December 16, 2024
It would not be surprising to see Rooks land major interviews for Amazon’s studio show, filling a void in the NBA that has been open since ESPN demoted Rachel Nichols in 2020. In September, Rooks sat down with Tyreek Hill for an illuminating interview following up on a traffic stop outside Hard Rock Stadium in Miami that turned physical before a Week 1 game.
Alongside ESPN’s Malika Andrews and TNT’s Adam Lefkoe, Rooks joins a youth movement in NBA studio hosting. Rooks, who previously anchored college football studio coverage at the Big Ten Network and SNY, will get a chance to make her mark on basketball as one of the faces of Amazon’s first-ever broadcast package of a heavy-inventory sport like the NBA.
At Prime Video, Rooks will lead coverage of the NBA Cup knockout rounds, multiple conference finals, and an exclusive Black Friday game starting in October 2025. Beginning in 2026, Prime Video will also be the exclusive home for a WNBA package, including multiple WNBA Finals. Amazon has signed an 11-year, nearly $20 billion deal with TNT Sports to air pro basketball games for the first time.
Rooks will be front and center for all of it, the latest major opportunity for one of sports media’s bigger rising stars.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.