ESPN cut ties with one of its most recognizable faces over her willingness to oppose biological men in women’s sports.
Sam Ponder went quiet for two years while the network moved on without her.
Now she’s popping up somewhere that has ESPN executives paying very close attention.
From Sunday NFL Countdown To The Chopping Block
Two years after ESPN laid her off, former “Sunday NFL Countdown” host Sam Ponder has resurfaced at Fox News. It has been a long, quiet stretch for a woman who spent nearly thirteen years building a name inside the Worldwide Leader in Sports.
ESPN fired Samantha Ponder and Robert Griffin III together, and The Athletic first reported the shake-up before ESPN confirmed it to Fox News Digital, with Ponder listed as anchor on “Sunday NFL Countdown” and Griffin as an analyst who appeared on multiple shows. A source close to the situation told Fox News Digital the moves were simply business decisions.
The decision to let Ponder go sparked most of the outrage on social media at the time, with Riley Gaines and former ESPN anchor Sage Steele among those who came to her defense. That reaction alone tells you this wasn’t viewed as a routine budget trim by the people who watched her work up close.
Gaines put the question bluntly on social media at the time, asking how ESPN could fire the one woman at the network who had publicly said men don’t belong in women’s sports just three weeks before football season. Gaines went further on her own podcast, calling Ponder incredible at her job and one of the most genuine people she had ever met.
Ponder previously had no formal role at Fox News, though her conservative politics have come to the fore since ESPN laid her off in 2024, and the Liberty University grad was one of several ESPN personalities to speak out for stricter gender participation policies in sports after intersex Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won gold at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She also stood by Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker after his faith-based commencement address at Benedictine College drew heavy fire from the sports media establishment.
Some, including GOP Senate nominee and former NBC Sports reporter Michelle Tafoya, speculated that her exit from ESPN shortly thereafter may have stemmed from her outspokenness. ESPN has always insisted it came down to dollars and cents. A lot of viewers never bought that explanation, and they still don’t.
Fox News Assembles The Girls
Ponder is set to be part of a new weekly podcast from Fox News called “The Girls,” which features some of the most prominent women on the network’s talent roster, joined by Fox & Friends Weekend cohost Rachel Campos-Duffy, longtime anchor Harris Faulkner, Gutfeld! panelist Kat Timpf, and former Andrew Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa. That’s a lineup built to cover a lot of ground beyond politics.
The Girls will release episodes weekly with a panel that rotates each week, and reporting indicated additional talent may join the show down the road. The first episode is scheduled to launch on October 1.
FOX News Media described the new show as a personality-driven conversation series that moves beyond the traditional news roundtable, with a free-flowing format that can range from politics and pop culture to money, marriage, parenting, and the story everyone’s talking about that week. No teleprompter, no script, just women who actually have opinions being allowed to share them out loud.
FOX News Digital and New Media President Porter Berry called The Girls “a natural addition to our growing podcast portfolio,” adding that the network is “thrilled to continue expanding our slate of distinctive shows.” That’s corporate-speak for a bet that women tired of legacy sports and news coverage will tune in for something with a pulse.
There’s a wrinkle worth flagging here, too. A Fox News spokesperson reached out after this story first published to clarify that Ponder will not be a full-time co-host of The Girls, and while she may “potentially” return, her return is not scheduled beyond the first episode. So this looks like a guest appearance for now rather than a permanent chair at the table, though the door is clearly open.
What This Says About ESPN’s Blind Spot
ESPN had a host who was willing to say, on the record, that biological men do not belong in women’s sports categories. The network let her go and called it a budget decision. Viewers are allowed to be skeptical of that timing.
Leagues and networks alike keep facing the same choice on this issue, and there’s no comfortable middle ground. Either an institution defends the plain biological reality that separates men’s and women’s competition, or it caves to activist pressure and lets the distinction blur until women’s sports stop meaning anything at all. ESPN, for a long stretch, chose to look the other way rather than let one of its own hosts keep making the case for fairness on air.
Ponder wasn’t alone in raising her hand. Gaines and Steele built entire post-ESPN careers partly around the same argument, and the fact that all three ended up drawing fire from inside a legacy sports network says plenty about where that institution’s priorities sat. Fox News, for its part, has spent years building a stable of women willing to say what plenty of Americans already believe but rarely hear echoed back to them from mainstream sports and news outlets.
Whether Ponder becomes a regular fixture on The Girls or just a one-episode guest, her reappearance on a major platform after two years on the sidelines is itself a signal. Audiences that felt like they lost a credible voice when ESPN cut her loose now have a place to hear from her again, even if it’s only for the debut. Given how that first firing played out, don’t be surprised if this “potential” return turns into something a lot more permanent once the ratings come in.
Sources: Awful Announcing, Fox News, The Hollywood Reporter, Yahoo Sports, The Spun, 100 Percent Fed Up