Melissa Stark Hired to Replace Michele Tafoya on NBC Sunday Night Football

Stark is best known for her time as the sideline reporter for ABC’s Monday Night Football from 2000-03.

The talented Melissa Stark is going to be hired to be the new sideline reporter for NBC’s Sunday Night Football, as first noted by sports media insider Andrew Marchand of the New York Post.

Stark, 48, will replace longtime NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, who left sports broadcasting to pursue a career in media and politics after the 2021 season.

Stark is best recognized for her three-year stint as the sideline reporter for ABC’s Monday Night Football from 2000 to 2003.

 Stark reportedly beat out NBC's Kathryn Tappen for the high-profile job. Tappen, at one time considered the inside-track favorite for the position, worked as a sideline reporter opposite of Tafoya in the 2022 Super Bowl.

The addition of Stark is yet another change for the new-look Sunday Night Football team heading into the 2022 season. ... and part of an assortment of network changes, most notably featuring Troy Aikman and Joe Buck leaving FOX Sports to do Monday Night Football on ESPN.

Mike Tirico has replaced longtime lead play-by-play man Al Michaels in the booth for the NBC show, with Cris Collinsworth remaining the network’s lead color commentator.

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