Roku launched a new look at top female athletes Thursday that includes a relative newcomer to the field.
Omaha Productions is best known for the programs it produces for ESPN — particularly the so-called “ManningCast” featuring Omaha leader Peyton Manning and his brother, Eli — but the company is making inroads into a slate tied to women’s sports.
“We are really encouraged by the appetite” for programming about female athletes,” says Colin Campbell, head of development for Omaha Productions, in a recent interview. “There’s a real interest here.”
The new series, “Gamechangers: America’s Top 25 Female Athletes,” is executive produced by Sue Bird, Alex Morgan, and Peyton Manning and features commentary from Olympic medalists Adam Rippon and Alysia Montaño, comedians Fortune Feimster and Jared Freid, WNBA announcer Ryan Ruocco, Fox Sports soccer analyst Stu Holden, sports media personalities Katie Feeney and Katie Nolan, broadcasters Cari Champion and Hannah Storm, and others. Bird and Morgan also appear in the special, which uses light banter and commentary to help viewers understand the athletes’ impact and achievements.
There’s an opportunity for Omaha to press into new production areas, says Eve Wulf, producer of current series for Omaha, during an inteview. “Gamechangers” shows the company using humor in a new way, enlisting comedians and others in a format that might hearken to VH-1 retrospective shows like “Best Week Ever” or “I Love The 90s.” “We really wanted to create something that was lighthearted and celebratory. Salvatory. We want people to watch the show or come away with a conversation,” says Wulf. “I think we know that any reasonable person will disagree with some of the rankings and disagree with some of the athletes on the list and say, ‘Why didn’t you include so-and-so?’ But what matters to us more is that it gets people talking about the athletes.”
