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Getting an Internship on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption

Ash McDaniel, Student at George Washington University

Ash McDaniel is a real up-and-comer in the sports media world. She’s been an Associated Press Sports Writer for the last two years, was named the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s student correspondent of the year, and has worked as a production intern on ESPN’s ‘Pardon The Interruption’. In this video she explains how she landed her production internship on one of ESPN’s most popular shows.

Watch Full Ash McDaniels Interview

Brian Clapp, the Founder of SportsTVJobs.com is a 12-year veteran of the Sports TV industry, having worked at both CNN/Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports Net as a Writer, Video Editor, Producer and News Director. “SportsTVJobs.com is the richest online resource for aspiring sports media professionals,” says Clapp “we have interviews with Sports TV experts, career advice, how to videos and access to over 3,000 sports jobs across the U.S., everything you need to pursue your dream job in the sports media world”.

Video Transcript

SportsTVJobs.com: Last summer you had the opportunity to intern at one of ESPN’s most popular shows, Pardon the Interruption, how did you land that internship, what kind of stuff did you get to do and did you have to do anything wacky for Tony Kornheiser?

McDaniel: That internship was probably the best thing that I’ve done so far. I ended up getting it because I’d call up Mike Wilbon’s office at the Washington Post about every day for three months, just kept asking can I work there? How do I apply for this internship? I ended up getting it eventually. I mostly logged tapes, but I would also edit about 3-4 segments for every show which is scary because they would just my editing job up there as is and if Wilbon or Kornheisers text didn’t match the pictures it was on me cause it was my fault. That was really stressful but they gave me a lot of responsibility there which was really great.

I didn’t have to do anything too crazy there but before I started working I started watching American Idol because I know how much Tony loves it, so I wanted to be able to talk to him in the office about different things. So I ended up watching Idol for that one season just for him.