With over 20 years of industry experience, Brett Haber is one of the most accomplished and unique sportscasters in the country. He operates from the enviable vantagepoint of having logged serious time in all four of sports television's major on-air disciplines: play-by-play, host, anchor and interviewer. Brett's uncanny writing style, which alternates between erudite, humorous, sardonic and provocative, combined with his bedrock poise in live, unscripted situations, has allowed him to stand out in a sea of indistinguishable sameness.
Brett is currently a commentator for Tennis Channel, serving as one of the network's primary hosts and play-by-play announcers. Over the past several years, Brett has been in the booth for many of the world's most prestigious tournaments, including the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open. In addition to his role calling matches, Brett continues as one of the network's primary hosts on its signature pre-match and post-match program "Tennis Channel Live".
Brett calls dozens of ATP and WTA events throughout the year, as well as Davis Cup, Fed Cup and events on the Powershares Series -- the senior tour featuring Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe and other legendary players over 30.
In the summer of 2012, Brett was tapped by NBC to be the network's lead play-by-play announcer for the tennis coverage at the Olympic Games in London. Brett and his colleagues brought the memorable competition at the All England Club to tens of millions of viewers back home in the US, chronicling Serena Williams' and Andy Murray's historic runs to gold. In 2016, Brett's role with NBC expanded, as he became the primary studio host for the network's tennis coverage at the Rio games.
Recently, Brett was given the high honor of becoming the emcee for the annual enshrinement ceremonies at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, RI. Brett's reverance for the history of tennis combined with his facile navigation of the various public events that encompass enshrinement weekend, make him the ideal person to fill the void in Newport left by the passing of legendary tennis journalist Bud Collins.
Brett made his Golf Channel debut as a guest host on "Morning Drive" in 2012. Brett demonstrated his versatility steering the live two-hour chat show and engaging in debates with some of the biggest names in golf.
In addition to his television work, Brett continues to maintain a robust writing portfolio. After a year serving as Editor-at-Large for Washingtonian Magazine, Brett's first piece for SI.com was published in September.
In the fall of 2011, opting to focus on network sports play-by-play instead of local news, Brett ended his seven year tenure as the Sports Director and primary anchor at WUSA-TV, the CBS affiliate in Washington, DC. Brett was honored for five consecutive years in Washington with the Emmy Award for the mid-Atlantic reigon's outstanding sports anchor (2006-'10). He won five additional Emmys during his tenure at WUSA (three for writing) and he has won 18 total Emmys during his broadcasting career. “Brett is one of the most talented broadcasters I’ve had the privilege to work with, said Allan Horlick, WUSA's president and General Manager. "His contributions to WUSA’s growth these past seven years have been numerous. We are sorry to see him leave, but we understand he has new challenges to pursue."
Brett also contributed to WUSA in areas outside of sports. He served as a news anchor at various times, including during the station’s marathon coverage of “Snowmagedden” two years ago. He also filed news reports during election night 2008, the presidential inaugural in 2009, the terror attack on Discovery Channel Headquarters in 2010 and the night of Osama Bin Laden’s killing earlier this year. “Brett has been one of our most versatile players,” said WUSA News Director Fred D’Ambrosi. “He is a unique talent who has been a catalyst for many of what we like to call Moments on 9-News. It’s hard to teach that.” Brett received widespread attention in 2011 for his commentaries in connection with the libel lawsuit filed by Washington Redskins’ owner Daniel Snyder against the Washington City Paper. Haber, with the full support of WUSA and parent company Gannett, made an impassioned stand in support of the newspaper’s First Amendment rights and against what he called, “Snyder’s financial bullying, reckless claims of anti-Semitism and wanton misrepresentation of the truth.” Haber’s campaign helped launch a widespread outcry against Snyder’s attempts to manipulate both the legal system and the media – one that earlier this month saw the ACLU and numerous other organizations file an Amicus Brief in federal court seeking the dismissal of the suit.
Prior to his tenure at WUSA, Brett was the Sports Director and anchor at WCBS-TV in New York, replacing legendary NY and DC sportscaster Warner Wolf. During that time Brett also served as a correspondent for CBS Sports, working as a sideline reporter for NCAA basketball and hosting the network's studio update desk known as "The Fidelity CBS SportsDesk". From 1997-2000 Haber was the Sports Director at WTTG-TV, the Fox station in Washington. He received the National Edward R. Murrow Award for sports reporting while at WTTG for his undercover investigation on rampant sports autograph fraud.
In the mid-1990’s Brett was one of the anchors of ESPN’s flagship program SportsCenter. During his time in Bristol, he served as the network’s tennis correspondent and as a contributor to “Outside the Lines” and “College Gameday”. In 1996, while at ESPN, the ATP World Tour honored Brett with the Ron Bookman Award, given annually to one international journalist for outstanding coverage of men’s tennis. Other recipients include Hall of Famers Bud Collins and Russ Adams.
In addition to those mentioned above, Brett has worked in the sports departments of WCPO-TV in Cincinnati and WCAX-TV in Burlington, VT. Haber is currently a consultant for Nike Tennis. Haber has served on the Board of the Tim & Tom Gullikson Foundation for Brain Tumor Patients. He is active in a number of Washington-based charitable causes, including Children’s National Medical Center and The Starlight Chidren's Foundation. Brett lives with his family in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside the nation's capital.
Copyright 2015 HaberOnAir. All rights reserved.