ESPN Has Canceled Rachel Nichols' Show

Less than two months after her comments about a Black colleague at ESPN made headlines, Rachel Nichols' show at the sports network is no more. ESPN announced Wednesday that The Jump will be canceled and Nichols will be taken off NBA coverage, the AP reports. Nichols had complained last year about her then-colleague, Maria Taylor, getting promoted; after the comments were reported publicly last month, Taylor left ESPN amid a contract extension dispute. That means the network must replace The Jump with a new daily NBA show, which will premiere sometime before the season starts in October, as well as find a new host for NBA Countdown, which Taylor used to host. The Jump will air for a few more weeks with guest hosts, ESPN said.

Malika Andrews replaced Nichols as the sideline reporter for the NBA finals after the July report, and the 26-year-old also hosted The Jump last week during Nichols' vacation. It's not clear whether she'll be a permanent replacement for Nichols or Taylor, but she'll likely have a significant role in ESPN's basketball coverage. It's also not clear what's next for Nichols at the network; she has more than a year left on her contract, CNN reports, but Yahoo Sports reports she is not expected to appear on the network again. "Got to create a whole show and spend five years hanging out with some of my favorite people, talking about one my favorite things," she wrote on Instagram. "The Jump was never built to last forever but it sure was fun. More to come…" (More ESPN stories.)