Thea Andrews (born October 4, 1973) is a Canadian journalist and television personality in both sports and entertainment news, as well as hosting reality competition and morning shows. From October 2003 to November 2006, she served as co-host on several ESPN shows such as Cold Pizza (2003–2005), Breakfast at Churchill Downs (2004–2006), Breakfast at Pimlico (2004–2006), The ESPY Red Carpet Show (2005–2006), ESPN Hollywood (2005–2006) and Sports and Hollywood (2006). Andrews reported on horse racing, college basketball and college football for the network.
She used to host a Saturday night counter programming block against Hockey Night in Canada called Guys TV on TSN, and a Canadian cable show titled Cooking for Love. She was a correspondent and host on Entertainment Tonight from November 2006 to October 2009. Andrews hosted the first season of Top Chef Canada and Nigel Lythgoe's country music singing competition, CMT's Next Superstar. From January 2013 to July 2015, she co-hosted The Insider.
Early life and career
Andrews was born in Toronto, Ontario to a Canadian businesswoman and a Macedonian lawyer. She attended Bishop Strachan School and was originally a "jock" before opting for theater instead. A reporter for a local cable channel as a sophomore, Andrews starred in Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil in 1992. After high school, she attended Queen's University and graduated with a degree in Spanish and Latin American studies. While at Queen's University Andrews co-hosted (with Cameron Dixon) Paradigm Shift a weekly half-hour series which highlighted the works of Queen's University's Film Department.
By 1999, Andrews was a producer at Fashion Television. The new millennium found her as host of the show Cooking for Love. Soon, she was hosting Guy's TV on TSN. Though both were canceled, Andrews continued to pursue her dreams. She became a reporter on the show etalk Daily and eventually the show's host.
Acting career
Andrews also has a list of theatre credits, including Cabaret in high school and The Vagina Monologues in 2001. She has also produced a number of shows in addition to writing internet columns for TSN. Andrews had a small role in the film Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle as the TV anchorwoman.
ESPN/ESPN2/ABC Sports
Before her part on Cold Pizza, Andrews was seen in the ESPN series Playmakers (2003), in which she played the role of Samantha Lovett, a television sports news reporter. The role was highly controversial and The Association for Women in Sports Media formally filed a complaint for the portrayal of Lovett. Andrews disagreed with this complaint in an interview with The Plain Dealer in 2004.
Andrews joined ESPN in October 2003 as the national correspondent for Cold Pizza (2003–2005), ESPN2's signature morning show as she made her debut on October 20, 2003. Andrews' primary role on the daily weekday program (7-9 a.m. ET) was to provide live reports from sports and non-sports events as well as to present unique lifestyle features. The show was originally hosted by Jay Crawford and Kit Hoover. Eventually, Andrews became co-host.
From 2004–2006, she co-hosted the Triple Crown morning shows on ESPN2 such as Breakfast at Churchill Downs (2004–2006) and Breakfast at Pimlico (2004–2006), a program of the morning the Kentucky Oaks, Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes (2004–2006). She also contributed to ESPN's long extensive coverage of the Triple Crown afternoon shows (2004–2006) including the Belmont Stakes.
She also covered other big horse racing events. She served as a reporter for the Breeders Cup Simulcast Show in 2004 and 2005.
After 17 months on Cold Pizza the show began cutting both the airtime of Andrews and Kit Hoover. In an attempt to become more sports-oriented rather than a blend of sports, pop culture, and entertainment, the show dropped Andrews and Hoover altogether in March 2005. They were replaced by Dana Jacobson. While Hoover left the network in late 2006, Andrews had already agreed several months prior to be transferred to Los Angeles to co-host ESPN2's new evening entertainment show, ESPN Hollywood.
She also co-hosted The ESPY Red Carpet Show (2005–2006) with Stuart Scott in July 2005. She hosted it in July 2006 with Dana Jacobson.* Andrews reported the sidelines for college football on ESPN and ABC