ATLANTA — In her line of work, Maria Taylor can’t climb much higher than she’s already ascended. This fall, she’ll begin her third season as full-time studio host of NBC’s “Football Night in America,” the most watched prime-time show on television. Starting next Friday, the former two-sport athlete at Georgia (and before that a star at Centennial High) will be a fixture on screens everywhere as she’ll be NBC’s late-night host at the Paris Olympics.
Her first major assignment will be during the opening ceremony, which in a highly anticipated change will not be in a stadium but instead on the Seine River. Taylor will be stationed on the boat carrying the U.S.
team. It is literally the first time any broadcaster has ever had this assignment, and NBC selected Taylor for it. The 37-year-old Taylor, who grew up in Alpharetta and lives in Buckhead with her husband, Jon Hemphill, and infant son Roman Ryan Taylor Hemphill (born in December), has reached heights in her business attained by few broadcasters, fewer women and no African American women.
None of it is lost on Taylor, who first caught the sports bug when her mother took her to watch events at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. “Everyone works hard,” Taylor said in a recent phone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’m aware of so many people that are extremely talented at this job and sometimes I do ask myself, like, ‘How did I end up getting to be the one to host ‘Football Night in.