Key Takeaways
- Nick Wright reflects on his rise from an $8-an-hour radio producer to the Emmy-nominated First Things First, crediting lucky breaks, Colin Cowherd’s support, and relentless preparation.
- Wright views Colin Cowherd, Dan Patrick, and Dan Le Batard as industry titans but wants to surpass Stephen A. Smith as sports talk’s biggest personality.
- He plans to watch LeBron James play in person as often as possible, expand his high-stakes poker work, and avoid AI because he believes doing his own thinking keeps his mind sharp.
Nick Wright, one of the most powerful people in sports media, has a stock answer when asked what he does for a living. “I’m one of those guys that argues about sports on TV,” he tells Complex.
Wright is more than just a Hot Take machine though. The 41-year-old Kansas City native is the go-to guy for anything Chiefs or LeBron related, but his well-researched, cogent opinions reach across leagues, even extending to social issues on occasion. “Nick has the ability to talk about a subject and it sounds like he’s reading a book,” Colin Cowherd tells Complex. “He’s a great story-teller. He can talk extemporaneously in a smart and detailed way.”
Read more about Wright’s professional journey below, and check out the full 2026 Sports Media Power Ranking here.
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Who do you consider your competition?
To me, it's really age-based. So I look at Colin and [Dan] Le Batard and Dan Patrick as my generational forebears. And probably I'm picking those three guys because I came up as a radio guy at heart. I still kind of consider myself a radio guy, even though I've done TV for 10 years. And so I've never tried to measure myself against those guys because those are the guys I grew up listening to, kind of learning from. I'm incredibly lucky that all three of them now are legitimate friends of mine. Colin has been wildly instrumental for me for a decade now. About five years ago, Dan Patrick and I developed a relationship and over the last three years I've developed one with Le Batard. So those guys are kind of like the titans to me of the industry.
But I'm not a radio guy anymore. When I'm on vacation and people are like, “What do you do for a living?" I say, "I'm one of the guys that argues about sports on TV." I’m an opinionist, or whatever you want to call it. Right now, the biggest in that field is Stephen A. [Smith]. And so I've always said my professional goal is for there to be at least one day, God willing, longer than one day, but I'll take just one day where if a hundred sports fans were asked Family Feud-style, who's the biggest sports talk personality, that I get the most votes. And right now, I think if that happened, Stephen A. would get the most votes. So I guess he's the guy that, despite not being my generation, that I'm chasing.
How would you describe the last 12 months? Do you have a biggest win?
I'll say two things. One is the Emmy nomination [for Daily Sports Show of the Year] I thought was something that really mattered a lot to me. I really wanted to win. We obviously didn't, but that's fine. And I have felt over the last few years, thanks to Brou and Wilds, that First Things First is the best sports TV show of its format. And it was very gratifying to be nominated against four prestige ESPN shows.
For me personally, the biggest professional change over the last 12 months that I'm proudest of is the number of people who speak either glowingly or about how often they listen to the podcast. That was not something that three years ago I heard a lot. And the podcast, I do it with my son. It is the closest thing to a family business that I think that I'll ever have.
Did you have a side hustle when you started out in the business?
I never had one. I started off in the summer of 07 making eight bucks an hour as a radio producer, plus I hosted What's Wright with Nick Wright on the weekends. And a couple months into that, I was on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and won 50 grand. That kind of floated me while I was making eight bucks an hour. And then as my career evolved, I remember vividly in 2010 when the first time I made more than $40,000 in a year and I was like, "Well, I'm set. I can easily live on this." The last job I had was door-to-door steak salesman in the summer going into college. My resume is just shoe salesman at Foot Action, door-to-door steak salesman, talk show host. I've never had another job.
Do you know what my college job was at NYU? I was a PA on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. But that was when Regis Philbin was the host.
Wow. That's amazing. I was on with Meredith Viera.
What lesson can people take from your success?
I have gotten wildly lucky in timing and in good fortune.
I was attempting to get a job with Fox Sports Radio, and it turned into a meeting with the new president of FS1—again, I was just trying to get him to give a recommendation to the radio people. My wife wanted to live in California and I was kind of done with Houston. We met for 10 minutes and it turned into, "Why don't you try out on TV?" And I was like, "I've never done TV." And so that turned into the Fox job.
Cowherd then took a shining to me and advocated that I get to fill in for him. And then my second time ever filling in for him was July 4, 2016, which is noteworthy because 10 minutes before we went to air, Kevin Durant announced he was going to the Warriors. And ESPN was in wall-to-wall Wimbledon coverage on both channels. So the only place you could really hear people talking about it was Colin's show, but I was filling in. And a few weeks after that Fox brought up the idea of starting First Things First. And then First Things First gets rolling in New York.
So I've just been stunningly lucky. If people want to take anything from it, it’s that I do put in the work—the work ethic and the preparation is something that I take pride in. And what I tell young people, and my own kids, is that if the career you want is the type of career that is mentioned when kindergartners are asked what they want to do when they grow up, then you better be prepared to work. Any of the dream chasing careers—actor, singer, dancer, pro athlete, entertainer, any of those jobs. If they're the types of jobs little kids want, it means they're awesome. They’re dream jobs. And if you're going to have a dream job, you really got to fucking chase that dream. And so you really, really, really got to work at it.
What are you most excited about for the future? Doesn’t have to be about sports.
Well, my son and his girlfriend just welcomed a little baby into the world, Myla, who just turned nine months. I just got to spend two weeks with her a couple weeks ago. So that's very, very, very exciting for us and our family..
Sports-wise, I am absolutely thrilled that for the first time in my life, LeBron's going to be playing for a team that is drivable. Being able to go to 15 or 20 Sixers games this coming year and seeing the final chapters of the greatest athlete in the history of the world's career in person is going to be pretty sick. Also, I’ve gotten more and more involved in the semi-professional kind of televised, high stakes poker world. And I think I'll do more and more of that.
It's funny, one of my lightning round questions for you was to finish this sentence: LeBron James is. . . You answered it.
The greatest athlete in the history of the world.
OK, let’s go. Do you use AI for work? And if so, how?
Never once for anything, ever. I'll give you a quick little anecdote. I got COVID when everybody was getting COVID and did the show from my house. We were remote. It was three hours after I had tested positive, but I felt fine. Midway through the show, we were talking about some game. It was something as simple as had the team gone for two, what the margin would've been. And the math wouldn't click in my head. And I had a very brief kind of minor existential crisis. I'm like, oh my God, am I dumb now? Is my brain not going to work? And it lasted for like 45 minutes. Brain fog. I was fine.
Here's the reason I bring that story up. Over the last few years, I have felt myself, along with, I think, a lot of the world—I don't want to say getting dumber, but not being quite as sharp as I once was, because we offload so much of our brain to our phones. And we have other people do our thinking for us. And so I am trying to stem that tide. And I think the only way to stay sharp is to use your brain as much as possible. So no, I've never used it for anything.
Maybe that’s dumb. Maybe in a few years I will regret not learning how to use it. But I fear not being as smart as I once was. And I think the only way to stay sharp is to use your brain as much as possible. So no, I've never used it for anything. I do The New York Times crossword puzzle every day now just as a way to try to keep my brain engaged. Because it's not just AI, it's the scrolling. It's all the bullshit we consume. And I can't stand it.
Who is the biggest heel in sports right now?
Oh, I don't know that there is one, but I'll tell you about a guy who had an abrupt heel turn that I saw coming and that's the seven foot six French kid who just saw the biggest city in America turn on him in the span of a week.
Will the Lakers sale end in congressional hearings?
No. I would doubt it. I'm pretty sure financial crime is legal right now.
Finish this sentence: I knew I made it when. . .
I'll let you know when I do.
