Table of Biography
Kenny Mayne is a well-known sports media personality from the United States. Kenny is best known for his work on ESPN from 1994 to 2021 and appeared as a host of Kenny Mayne’s Wider World of Sports on ESPN.com.
Early Life
On the 1st of September 1959, Kenny Mayne was born in Kent, Washington, the United States of America. He holds an American nationality and has a birth sign of Virgo. According to his date of birth, he is 64 years old and has his belief in Christianity religion. His birth name is Kenneth Wheelock Mayne III and his ethical background is unknown.
Meanwhile, it is still a mystery when it comes to his ethical background, parents’ names, and professions. Similarly, it is also unknown whether he has any siblings or not.
Education
Following his academic qualification, he went to a local private high school and completed his high school education. Later, he went to Wenatchee Valley Community College (Wenatchee, Wa.), where he was an honorable mention junior college All-American quarterback in 1978.
Later, he earned a bachelor of arts degree in broadcasting from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in 1982. During his time at the university, he played football for two years and later signed as a free agent with the Seattle Seahawks (1982).
Professional Career
KSTW
Kenny started his television career with a brief stint as a reporter for KLVX-TV in Las Vegas, Nevada. Working for KSTW-TV in Seattle, Washington, he spent seven years (1982–89). Moreover, he was appointed as a weekend sports anchor and weekday news reporter.
Mayne was known as an anchor for his unique personality, which included his “Dog Days of Summer Score Dog” segment, in which he used his dog to help give baseball scores. In 1989, he resigned from KSTW.
ESPN
After that, Mayne works as a freelance reporter and field producer for the network from 1990-1994. Later, he was hired by ESPN in the year 1994, after he had sent ESPN a note inquiring whether the network would hire him.
He started working at ESPN in 1994 as a SportSmash anchor on ESPN2, then promoted to the anchor of the weekend edition of RPM 2Night from its start on Labor Day Weekend from 1995 until August 1997.
Afterward, he moved over to the main network, and served for a time, as co-anchor of the 11 PM SportsCenter with Dan Patrick after Keith Olbermann left ESPN. Moreover, after working for two years at SportsCenter, he left the television program and moved to an assortment of late-night ESPN shows which were usually re-aired throughout the next morning.
Work with ESPN on several projects
Included in his repertoire was the game show 2 Minute Drill. He has also served as a host for ABC and ESPN’s horse racing events. Moreover, he provided offbeat feature stories on Sunday NFL Countdown in a weekly segment called The Mayne Event.
Caption: Kenny Mayne working for ESPN (Source: Cleveland.com)
He then signed ESPN to a one-year contract to do features and cover horse racing on the 17th of January 2007, as well as return to SportsCenter for about 50 shows in 2007. Then, he launched a series of videos called “Kenny Mayne’s Wider World of Sports” on ESPN.com highlighting Mayne’s trips around the world.
On October 15, 2013, he returned to SportsCenter, after a five-year absence. In addition, he signed a new contract with ESPN earlier that month that set Mayne to anchor 70 episodes of SportsCenter and host 10 special features per year through 2015.
During his tenure at ESPN, he became known for his dry sense of humor. On the 10th of May 2021, he announced that he would be leaving ESPN after 27 years as an anchor and correspondent for the network, declining a 60% pay cut.
NBC
In July-September 2021, he started working along with another former ESPN anchor, Cari Champion, who hosted streaming coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics on Peacock called Tokyo Tonight.
Other appearances
Caption: Kenny Mayne and his partner Andrea Hale in the Dancing with the Star season 2 (Source: Pinterest)
Mayne participated in the second season of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars with partner Andrea Hale in 2006. However, after a disastrous cha-cha, Mayne was the first contestant to be eliminated. Meanwhile, he was featured in the 1998 film “BASEketball.” He also played himself on an episode of The Drew Carey Show named “Tracy Bowl.”
Similarly, he hosted the pilot episode of the CBS Primetime game show Power of 10 in November 2006, which would later be hosted by Drew Carey. He wrote his first book ” An Incomplete And Inaccurate History Of Sport” which was public in 2008.
It is a collection of offbeat musings on sports and pop culture. He has also appeared in the 2010 animated film Kung Fu Magoo as himself.
Award
In 2021, Mayne won the Telly Award for Television General Sports category and shared it with others. Meanwhile, he was nominated for Outstanding Sports Personality – Studio Host in the 2003 Sports Emmy Award.
Net Worth 2024
As an American sports journalist and comedian, he makes a huge sum of money and lives a lavishing and comfortable life. As of 2022, his net worth is around $10 million and his annual salary is around $3 million from his current news network.
Relationship Status
In his personal life, Kenny Mayne married twice, and currently, he is a divorced person. Firstly, he married his wife Darcelle Black on the 17th of September 1983. However, after seven years of relationship, the couple divorced on the 11th of July 1990.
On the 1st of June 1995, he married Laura Waggoner with whom, he has three kids and their names are unknown at the moment. Having over 19 years of marital relationship, the couple divorced on the 19th of December 2014.
Kenny Mayne – Body Measurements
Caption: Kenny Mayne injured his leg (Source: ESPN)
Kenny stands 5 feet 9 inches tall (1.75 m) and has an average weight. He has green eyes with white hair color and his other body measurements are still unknown.
Social Media
On his Instagram page ‘@mayne.kenny’ there are over 5.2k followers. Likewise, there are over 360.3k followers on his Twitter page ‘@Kenny_Mayne’ and over 2.6k followers on his Facebook page.