Katie Nolan spoke recently about why her broadcasting debut for Apple TV went so poorly.
Nolan was a guest on the May 5 episode of the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast. She talked with Jimmy Traina about her new job as a commentator for Apple TV’s MLB broadcasts. Apple TV+ is broadcasting 24 “Friday Night Baseball” games this season. It has been doing two games each Friday night since April 8, and the schedule runs through June 24.
Nolan teams with Stephen Nelson (play-by-play) and Hunter Pence for the West Coast game. Melanie Newman (play-by-play), Chris Young and Hannah Keyser are the team for the East Coast game.
Nolan had never done analysis/commentary in a live broadcast prior to being hired by Apple, so this was a big change. During her first broadcast, a game between the Astros and Angels, Nolan went silent for the second half of the game. She admitted during her interview with Traina that the reason she went silent is because she checked what users on Twitter were saying about her, and she got rattled.
Nolan’s admission came after Traina asked whether she checked Twitter during games.
“I’m going to be honest with you. Week 1 I did [check Twitter], because my goal is … listen, listen, listen, listen! What I’m there for, I can be the voice of the fan. So if something is happening that we didn’t notice, and because you know me, I’m digging through notes like crazy, if I missed something that actually would have been funny and someone’s like, hey, this is interesting — I thought that’s what I was gonna get my first week. I checked it in like the fourth or fifth inning, and then you can tell from the fifth inning on I’m silent. Because I just was in my head, I was freaked out, I was worried I was going to get fired after one shift of this gig. And since then I’ve stopped,” Nolan said.
The Apple TV MLB broadcasts have been poorly received by fans. The biggest reason is because of the lack of experience for the announcers on both broadcast teams. Nelson doesn’t have a huge play-by-play background, especially compared to many other announcers with years and hundreds of games of experience. Nolan, Pence, Young and Keyser are new in these roles.
Nolan even talked with Traina about her lack of experience.
“I’m basically learning how to be in a booth while being in a booth,” Nolan said.
Nolan is hoping she will be given enough time for her style to grow on people.
“Is one season going to be enough for people to realize I’m funny and that’s kind of why I’m here?”
Nolan acknowledged that Apple has a slate of half a season of games, so she doesn’t know if that will be long enough for her to grow on fans.
