bio

Currently the co-host of the “Michael Kay Show” on ESPN Radio along with Don LaGreca, Bonnie Bernstein is the youngest journalist on the American Sportscasters Association’s list of Top 15 All-Time Female Sportscasters. Her first full-time hosting role comes a year after shifting to studio work for ESPN as part of the anchor rotation for NFL Live, Outside the Lines, Jim Rome is Burning, First Take and College Football Live. In 2006, upon Bernstein’s return to the “Worldwide Leader in Sports,” she served as a sideline reporter for ABC’s college football package and ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.

Bernstein’s tenure at ESPN comes after eight years at CBS Sports, where she was the lead reporter for the NFL and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships. She contributed features for The NFL Today; hosted the Network’s Emmy-nominated anthology series, Championships of the NCAA, and the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships; and anchored SportsDesk and At the Half, CBS’ New York-based studio shows. Track and field, figure skating, and the U.S. Open Tennis Championships rounded out Bernstein’s assignments at the Network.  Bernstein often pulled  “double duty,” during the NFL season, broadcasting Sunday TV games and Monday Night Football for CBS/Westwood One Radio. In 2004, during Super Bowl XXXVIII, she became the first reporter to serve as both a network TV and network radio correspondent on the same broadcast.

Bernstein first joined ESPN in 1995 as its Chicago Bureau Chief, where she covered Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls’ record-setting championship run. She also filed reports for SportsCenter during the Major League Baseball Playoffs and the NCAA Women's Basketball Championships, and served as a correspondent for NFL Countdown and College GameDay.

Prior to ESPN, Bernstein made local television history at the NBC affiliate in Reno, NV (KRNV-TV), becoming the “Biggest Little City’s” first-ever female weekday sports anchor. She began her television career at WMDT-TV (ABC) in Salisbury, MD, anchoring weekend news, and broke into broadcasting in radio, as the news and sports director for WXJN-FM in Lewes, DE.

Numerous publications have documented Bernstein’s work, including The New York Times, USA Today, Sports Illustrated and TV Guide and lifestyle magazines such as Glamour, Self, Men’s Health and Celebrity Living. In October, 2007, Bernstein was honored by New York Moves Magazine as one of New York’s “Power Women,” along with such notables as Susan Sarandon, Sex in the City author Candace Bushnell, model Lauren Bush and Ivanka Trump. In 2005, Bernstein was named to Jewish Women International’s “Ten Women to Watch” list, an exclusive group selected from the United States, Canada and Israel for their professional achievements.

Outside of broadcasting, Bernstein serves as a National Patient Spokesperson for the Coalition to Prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis.  Since surviving a near-fatal diagnosis in 2006, she has traveled cross-country promoting DVT education and awareness and helped influence DVT-related legislation recently passed by Congress and a “call to action” issued by the US Surgeon General. Additionally, her consulting firm, Velvet Hammer Media, is collaborating on a youth fitness initiative aimed at reducing childhood obesity in the US.

Bernstein graduated magna cum laude from the University of Maryland’s renowned Merrill College of Journalism. She currently serves on the College’s Board of Directors. While at College Park, Bernstein was a four-time Academic All-America selection (gymnastics) and received the Thomas M. Fields Award for academic and athletic excellence. 

Bernstein was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and grew up in Howell, N.J. She presently resides in New York City.