One of ESPN’s biggest stars is leaving, and the timing couldn’t be worse. Elle Duncan, who is the face of the network’s women’s sports coverage and co-host of SportsCenter at 6 p.m., is leaving to run Netflix’s new sports studio programming. Her departure leaves ESPN scrambling to fill a significant gap at a time when women’s basketball and the WNBA are drawing record audiences.

It looks like the network is ready to move quickly to fill the gap left by Duncan. Sources who talked to Front Office Sports say that Malika Andrews is now the top choice to become ESPN’s main WNBA studio host. Andrews has already done some WNBA coverage, including hosting the league’s opening night broadcasts last season, so this decision would be a natural next step for her. ESPN trusts her to run major studio programming because she is already the lead host of NBA Today and NBA Countdown. This season, however, the network is cutting back on Countdown to make room for its licensed Inside the NBA content featuring the TNT legends.

Andrews’ candidacy makes sense from a strategic point of view, not just because she has hosted the WNBA before. She is currently juggling several high-profile roles, including returning to NBA sideline reporting this season. Duncan’s ability to multitask is similar to the multi-platform approach she mastered while working at ESPN. For example, she was the lead voice for women’s college basketball coverage, including the Final Four, while also anchoring the 6 p.m. SportsCenter with Kevin Negandhi. Duncan’s leaving leaves ESPN with a lot of gaps in its programming schedule, not just for WNBA games.

There are still questions about the network’s plans for replacing Duncan in all of her roles. ESPN would not say anything about Andrews’ promotion or the bigger plan for filling Duncan’s roles in women’s college basketball and the evening SportsCenter slot. Duncan’s contract ends at the end of the year, so ESPN doesn’t have much time to finalize its lineup for the upcoming women’s basketball season and WNBA coverage.

Elle Duncan’s replacement rose from NBA writer to network star

As ESPN considers its options, the woman who is set to take Elle Duncan’s place was not a TV star at first. In October 2018, Malika Andrews started working for ESPN, writing about the NBA online and covering the Bulls and Bucks from behind a laptop. No one thought she would become one of the network’s most well-known faces in just a few years.

When ESPN put Andrews on the sidelines during the 2020 NBA Bubble, everything changed for her. People paid a lot of attention to her work during the Finals the next year, but the big break came when she became the first woman to host the NBA Draft in 2021. That historic event won her a Sports Emmy Award and a spot on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list.

ESPN gave Andrews the keys to NBA Today in late 2021. She brought a new way of looking at things that combines basketball analysis with bigger cultural discussions, which fans who want more than just highlights and stats can relate to.

Andrews is currently a studio host and sideline reporter for ESPN’s basketball coverage. But the network’s silence about Duncan’s other roles leaves a lot of questions unanswered. How ESPN fills the gaps in women’s college basketball, and SportsCenter will show if they’re building around fewer big-name hosts or spreading the work out in a different way.