Adnan Virk

Adnan Virk
Born
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
NationalityCanadian
Alma materRyerson Polytechnical Institute
OccupationSports anchor
Employer
Spouse
Eamon Virk
​
(m. 2007)​

Adnan Virk (Urdu: عدنان وِرک)is a Canadian sportscaster for MLB Network who previously worked for DAZN, ESPN, TSN, The Score and WWE. He formerly produced and hosted the weekly podcast Cinephile with Adnan Virk show covering cinema news and interviews with entertainment celebrities.[1] He also formerly co-hosted the football podcast The GM Shuffle with former NFL executive Michael Lombardi.

Early life

Virk was born in Toronto, Ontario; his parents had immigrated to Canada from Punjab, Pakistan.[2] In 1984[3] the family relocated to Kingston, then in 1989 to Morven,[4] a small town just outside Kingston, where his parents owned and operated a gas station and Zack's Variety store.[2] After graduating from Ernestown Secondary School, where he played basketball and soccer, Virk studied Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.[3]

Career

From 2003[2] to 2009, Virk hosted several programs on The Score,[5][6] and was an associate producer for Sportscentre at TSN. He was also the co-host of Omniculture and Bollywood Boulevard[7] at Omni Television. In 2009, he joined Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE)[8] as a host and reporter for Raptors TV, Leafs TV and Gol TV Canada.[2]

ESPN

In April 2010, Virk joined the ESPN family of stations in Bristol, Connecticut.[9] After joining ESPN, he became one of three main anchors for Baseball Tonight.[10] During 2014 spring training, he began calling play-by-play for an ESPN affiliate.[10] In the baseball off-season, he hosted SportsCenter and Outside the Lines. He would also fill in for Keith Olbermann on Olbermann.[10] He was the host of a movie podcast Cinephile on ESPN.[11] In addition, he was also the main studio host for ESPN College Football and also hosted College Football Final.

On February 3, 2019, Virk was fired following an investigation regarding leaks of ESPN information to the media.[12] Virk and ESPN later agreed not to pursue litigation against each other.[13]

DAZN, MLB Network and NHL Network

In March 2019, it was announced that Virk would host the new MLB studio program ChangeUp for DAZN, a subscription streaming media service based in London.[14][15] In addition, Virk appeared on MLB Network.[16] He also hosted boxing events.

ChangeUp was canceled just prior to the 2020 MLB season.[17] His contract with DAZN expired in 2022.

He is currently co-hosting MLB Tonight[18] as well as appearing on the NHL Network.

WWE

On April 12, 2021, it was announced that Virk would become the new play-by-play commentator for Monday Night Raw, replacing Tom Phillips.[19] However, after a negative reception from the fans,[20] six weeks later on May 25, he and the company mutually parted ways because Adnan claimed the schedule was too much for him and his family.[21] He was replaced by Jimmy Smith.

Silver Screen Debut

Virk made his feature film debut in 2023 as a sports announcer in Big George Foreman, a biography about the former heavyweight boxing champion directed by George Tillman Jr.

Host of Prime Monday Night Hockey

In April 2024, Canadian NHL broadcast rightsholder Rogers Communications announced that it had struck a deal to shift a portion of its rights – specifically the Monday night games played in Canada – from its own NHL on Sportsnet broadcast to Amazon Prime Video for the 2024–25 and 2025–26 regular seasons.[22] In September, it was announced that Virk and Andi Petrillo would co-host the pre-game, intermissions, post-game portions of Prime Monday Night Hockey,[23] which launched with a game in Montreal on October 14, 2024.[24]

References

  1. ^ "Cinephile with Adnan Virk". player.fm. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d Fatteh, Parvez (11 July 2010). "Adnan Virk Joins ESPN". The Muslim Observer. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011.
  3. ^ a b Kennedy, Patrick (15 April 2010). "Bench warmer gets hot job". Kingston Whig-Standard. Archived from the original on 16 March 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  4. ^ Petrick, Stephen (14 April 2011). "Adnan Virk's long road from ESS to ESPN". The Napanee Guide. Archived from the original on 16 March 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  5. ^ Chick, John (9 April 2010). "Raps broadcaster headed south, is Bosh next?". Metro. Archived from the original on 16 March 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  6. ^ Warmington, Joe (31 October 2008). "CRTC gives Score a leg up". Toronto Sun.
  7. ^ Zelkovich, Chris (2 May 2008). "Calmer, gentler Virk takes reporting role". Toronto Star.
  8. ^ Dowbiggin, Bruce (15 March 2013). "Racist tweets about TSN hosts reveal Canada's nasty side". The Globe and Mail.
  9. ^ Zelkovich, Chris (22 April 2010). "Adnan Virk latest Canadian to join ESPN". Toronto Star.
  10. ^ a b c Hale, Jeff (21 March 2014). "Adnan Virk is Joan Rivers to Keith Olbermann's Johnny Carson". Yahoo Sports Canada. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
  11. ^ "Cinephile: The Adnan Virk Movie Podcast Show - PodCenter". ESPN Radio.
  12. ^ Marchand, Andrew (February 3, 2019). "Rising ESPN star Adnan Virk fired, escorted out in leak investigation". New York Post.
  13. ^ Jones, Kaelen (March 14, 2019). "Report: Former ESPN Host Adnan Virk Joining DAZN". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  14. ^ "Adnan Virk joins DAZN to helm MLB show "ChangeUp"". Awful Announcing. 2019-03-14. Retrieved 2019-03-15.
  15. ^ Marchand, Andrew (2019-03-14). "Adnan Virk completes ESPN divorce, finds new home". New York Post. Retrieved 2019-03-15.
  16. ^ @richarddeitsch (March 14, 2019). "Virk will also make appearances on MLB Network" (Tweet). Retrieved March 26, 2019 – via Twitter.
  17. ^ Lucia, Joe (22 July 2020). "DAZN has reportedly cancelled MLB ChangeUp prior to the start of the 2020 season". Awful Announcing. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  18. ^ "Harold Reynolds and Adnan Virk to anchor new-look 6 p.m. ET edition of "MLB Tonight"". MLB.com. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
  19. ^ "ADNAN VIRK JOINS WWE® MONDAY NIGHT RAW®". corporate.wwe.com. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
  20. ^ "411Mania".
  21. ^ "WWE anuncia el despido de Adnan Virk tras siete semanas de trabajo". 25 May 2021.
  22. ^ "Rogers announces deal to move Monday night NHL games to streaming". CBC Sports. The Canadian Press. 2024-04-23. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
  23. ^ Tovell, Jonathan (2024-09-23). "Prime Video Unveils On-Air Talent For NHL Broadcasts, Trailer for Star-Studded Docuseries". The Hockey News. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
  24. ^ Strong, Gregory (2024-10-11). "Prime Monday Night Hockey job a homecoming for Canadian broadcaster Adnan Virk". The Canadian Press. Retrieved 2024-11-04.

Further reading

Preceded by Raw lead announcer
2021 		Succeeded by