Celebrity Jobber with Jeff Zito - Suzy Kolber
Celebrity Jobber Podcast with Jeff Zito
Host Jeff Zito interviews veteran sports journalist Susie Colber about her transition from a 27-year career at ESPN to launching her new doc
Key takeaways
- Susie Colber spent 27 years at ESPN before being laid off three years ago.
- Her new docuseries, The Originals, is available on the Scripps Sports Network.
Main topics
- Career transition from ESPN
- The Originals docuseries
Notable quotes
I was the little girl who just loved football and at eight years old, I asked my mom for a helmet and pads.
Conclusion
The episode offers an inspiring look at how sports trailblazers naviga
Transcript preview
Speaker 4 (0:03) Hey, thanks for checking out another episode of the Celebrity Jobber Podcast, currently number five on the Apple Podcast Music Interviews chart. And we're streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcasts, we're streaming on all of them. If you could please hit that subscribe button, would love a five-star rating, and please leave a comment and or a review. You can check out past guests and episodes on celebrityjobber.com. Celebrity Jobber Rewind every Wednesday, highlighting an old episode you may have missed, like this past Wednesday's episode, number 59 from November of 2023, featuring Brent Smith, the lead singer of the band Shinedown. So who were these people before they were famous? How did they become who they became? Professional sports and sports reporting is definitely a male-dominated industry, but Susie Culber, definitely one of the original women who began working at ESPN back in 1993. She has a pretty interesting story from when she was a little kid. and promoting her new show called The Originals, which is on the Scripps Sports Network, which is a free streaming channel. Six in-depth one-on-one interview episodes with major sports trailblazers and figures who defy easy explanations. The Originals featuring Susie Culber. That is her current job, but we'll also talk to Susie about her very first job and so much more. Sports journalist Susie Colber is my guest this week on Celebrity Jobber. The Speaker 3 (1:44) Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. If you like what you hear, please subscribe. Give a five-star rating and leave a review. Check out all our past episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you pod. What if these celebrities weren't famous? What would they have become? What was their first job? We're about to find out. Speaker 4 (2:07) Hello, Susie. Hey, Speaker 2 (2:09) Jeff. Speaker 4 (2:09) How are you? Speaker 2 (2:10) Great. How are you? I'm Speaker 4 (2:12) doing great. I'm so excited to talk to you this morning. I've watched already the episode with John Gruden, by the way, Susie Culber's new show. It's a docuseries, six parts. It's called The Originals. And it airs on Script Sports Network. By the way, I already tried to get it. It's a free streaming network. You can get it on Samsung TV, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Prime. Just search for it. You'll get it. Really good stuff, Susie. Awesome. Speaker 2 (2:45) And if you can't see it in any of those places, then it'll be up on the Script Sports YouTube page as well. Speaker 4 (2:52) There you go. I'm going to Speaker 2 (2:52) watch it on Amazon. I checked it out too. Speaker 4 (2:57) So listen, I was read this, you know, you've had this in the works for a little while. We've read all the, you know, this, the news that has come out as of late about your departure from those other guys. And I can relate because something similar happened to me early on in my career. I had somebody. tell me that they were filling in for me tomorrow. And they said, what are you doing tomorrow night? I'm filling in for you tomorrow. I go, I'm not doing anything. And when I heard somebody said to you, Hey Susie, your name's on this whiteboard. It kind of, it to me, I found kind of a kinship between us because of, of that. Tell me a little bit. I Speaker 2 (3:45) have found in this because I, I had not spoken about my layoff for three years. And part of it was immediately after I was still under contract and I was told if I say anything disparaging, then they could actually not pay me my final year. So I was very, very cautious about that. But then it's just sort of my nature until I really had something I felt strongly that I wanted to talk about, which is the launch of this new show. I didn't necessarily feel like there was a reason for me to be out there. And then naturally people are curious. So they're asking these questions, which I'm, I'm certainly, you know, happy to engage in and talk about because it was, it was 27 years of my life at ESPN, which I loved. I got to do so many great things and then so many opportunities. So just like, like you were saying this, you're sharing, I've had so many people reach out since I've done these recent interviews. and share, wow, I can really relate. You know, I worked for this company so long, I poured my heart and soul in, and then, you know, and then I'm like, go. It's like, it's the way of the world, right? And we're all in it together. And, you know, in television, this industry, it's also unforgiving and competitive and difficult. And I didn't take it personally. I knew it was about the money, but I'm still human. Speaker 4 (5:08) Yes. Speaker 2 (5:09) you just sort of also want to be acknowledged for, well, you know, I was a first person hired for the launch of ESPN too. And I was the first person to host the extreme games, you know, selected for that. In fact, I went to Rhode Island and shot the sales tape for it, you know, because I had a deep love of alternative sports. And I was part of the team that when Monday Night Football moved to ESPN, I was. I was a part of that. So it wasn't like I was an important and pretty big franchisor. And I just wondered how difficult would it be for a company like that just to say, thanks for the 27 years, Susie. Just an acknowledgement. I think it's natural. Again, people are laid off