Childhood & Early Life
Michelle Beadle was born on October 23, 1975 in Italy to an American father and Italian mother. Bob Beadle and Serenella Paladino could not have been more different from each other; he was a politically conservative former executive of Valero Energy while she was the archetypal 1970s’ “super-hippie,” who once handcuffed herself to the American embassy in Rome during a protest. Michelle has a younger brother, Robert and also a younger sister.
She grew up in Roanoke, Texas, outside Dallas and later moved to Boerne, a small town near San Antonio. Of all the family members, she was especially close to her mother, who, having just relocated to America, did not know English The mother and daughter duo learned the language together. Paladino influenced Beadle’s political views as well. In the 1990s, Beadle was involved in Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign.
After leaving Boerne High School, she enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin to study law and political science in 1994. Joining a law group, she even began to work at the capitol in Austin. The experience, however, brought nothing but disillusionment; she left the university three years after enrolment.
She spent the next three years doing odd jobs, including breeding greyhounds in Canada, and waiting tables in Austin when she got back. Beadle eventually returned to school to study Communications at the University of Texas at San Antonio. In 2001, she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in the subject.
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Career
Besides interning for the San Antonio Spurs, Michelle Beadle began hosting ‘Big Game Hunters’ on Fox Sports Net as well. In 2002, she joined TNN as a “behind-the-chutes” side-line reporter and covered Professional Bull Riders' (PBR) ‘Bud Light Cup’ tour. Initially hired for two weeks’ work, she was upgraded to be a full-timer. During this period, she also free-lanced for CBS Sports, covering the PBR and ESPN's Titan Games.
Her next gig was with the Travel Channel, hosting ‘Get Packing’. She then served as the host for one season of ‘Cathedrals of the Game’ at MLB Network.
Moving to YES Network, she was involved in the ‘Ultimate Road Trip’ for three consecutive seasons where they would take a die-hard New York Yankees fan and give him or her tickets to all 162 games in a season.
She also did interviews and reports on New Jersey Nets’ regular season, preseason and post-season for the network. She co-hosted Kids on Deck and Sportslife NYC and was a reporter for ‘NFL Under the Helmet’, a syndicated show by NFL Films.
Michelle Beadle has been equally prominent as an entertainment journalist. She has reported from the Red Carpet for events such as Golden Globes, Grammy, SAG, and Tony Awards.
As an anchor, she has appeared on People.com's feature ‘What You Missed Over the Weekend’; Discovery Channel's ‘Inside Orlando's Resorts’ and ‘Outrageous Room Service’; Fine Living Network's ‘I Want Your Job’; Travel Channel's ‘Beach Week series,’ and Animal Planet’s ‘Animal Planet Report.’ She has also reported for ‘Access Hollywood,’ ‘Entertainment Tonight,’ ‘The Today Show,’ ‘Extra,’ and ‘The Early Show.’
Michelle Beadle was one of the 142 hopefuls who auditioned for the job on ‘SportsNation.’ After the audition she received a call asking her to write about the things she might do to change the show for better. She thought it was a joke and wrote down “a sarcastic list of 10 stupid things” and sent it. To her utter surprise, it landed her the job. She joined ESPN on June 1, 2009.
Debuting on July 6, 2009 on ESPN2, the show ‘SportsNation’ focused on the sports section of ESPN.com. About 60% of the show’s entire material comes from the fans, including athlete tweets, videos from the internet, and online polling.
Beadle has also had her share of controversies in her career. She has been involved in an infamous feud with Erin Andrews (who now works for Fox Sports) that has been going on for years. It started when Beadle criticised Andrews in the ‘Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN’ book.
At NBC, she was a correspondent for ‘Access Hollywood’ as well as an anchor on their Sports Network. Her show with Dave Briggs, ‘The Crossover with Beadle and Brigg’, first aired on January 28, 2013, but in May, it was reintroduced as ‘The Crossover with Michelle Beadle’ after Briggs was removed as the co-host. It was eventually cancelled on September 25.
On March 3, 2014, a deal between NBC and ESPN made Beadle’s return to her old network and to ‘SportsNation’ possible. She currently hosts the show with Marcellus Wiley.
She has appeared as a guest star on ‘Law & Order: Special Victim’s Unit’, the police procedural show starring Ice T, Christopher Meloni, and Mariska Hargitay. Beadle played a reporter in the 2014 episode, ‘Comic Perversion’. In the 2015 comedy sci-fi ‘Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!’, she portrayed the character of Agent Argyle.
Controversy
Michelle Beadle interviewed Manny Pacquiao on HBO’s ‘The Fight Game’ prior to his fight with Floyd Mayweather on May 2, 2015. In the hours leading up to the match, CNN’s Rachel Nichols tweeted that she and Beadle, two of the most outspoken critics of Mayweather, have been banned from the fight. Beadle later confirmed it in a tweet of her own.
However, Kelly Swanson of Swanson Communications, the company that handled the public relations for the fight, wrote back that no one, including her, had banned either journalist from the event.
