As Chiney Ogwumike knows all too well from her days as a WNBA star player, a little momentum can go a long way.
That’s why the athlete-turned-ESPN on-air analyst for both men’s and women’s pro and collegiate hoops is busier than ever this summer, from the recent debut of a new Disney+ talker about sports from a female perspective that she co-hosts, “Vibe Check,” to working as a producer on a scripted series based on her own life for Peacock.
But on the latest episode of the Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” she says none of it would be possible without the emergence of women’s basketball as a full-fledged media phenomenon — a development she herself admits took her by surprise.
Listen to the podcast here:
“I am completely astonished to be in the present moment right now,” she said. “Anybody that picked up a ball, probably around my age or prior, did not expect for it to happen the way it did currently. And so it’s been amazing.”
Ogwumike also credits the surge in the WNBA’s popularity with paving the way for “The W,” a comedy series set in a fictional version of the women’s hoops world based on her own misadventures with her real-life business partner, Allison Galer. It’s her hope that “W” is just the first of more programming she hopes to produce as she learns the ropes of a very different game: Hollywood.
“I have a vision, yes, and we have a prospective slate,” she said. “We have another concept that we’re very excited about. We have unscripted things in the cooker that hopefully people will hear about soon.”
“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes debut every Wednesday and can be downloaded at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.