All-women sports talk show debuts tonight

NEW YORK – What perfect timing.

An all-women sports show premieres tonight after weeks of NFL domestic violence cases dominating the headlines. Co-coordinating producer Emilie Deutsch has spent a lot of time listening to that male bastion of sports talk radio to prepare for the gig, and she marvels that “I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard someone say, ‘Well, I talked to my wife about this and my wife said this.’ ”

A core panel of a dozen female commentators will get to speak for themselves on “We Need to Talk,” which airs on cable channel CBS Sports Network (7 p.m.). The weekly, hour-long, prime-time show is the first of its kind.

To Deutsch and fellow coordinating producer Suzanne Smith, the all-women cast makes it completely different than other sports programs – yet no different at the same time.

Smith notes that “The NFL Today” studio is next door to that of “We Need to Talk,” and she believes any of her 12 commentators could comfortably slide onto that set.

“They can talk the talk,” said Smith, the only woman currently producing or directing NFL games.

But CBS wouldn’t be doing the show unless its executives believed their talk would offer a different perspective.

“They bring their experiences as young girls, women, mothers, daughters to the topics,” said Deutsch, a vice president of features and original programming.

The main panelists are a mix of veteran broadcasters and former pro athletes. CBS is using five of its own announcers: Pro Football Hall of Fame honoree Lesley Visser; former Oakland Raiders CEO Amy Trask; sideline reporters Tracy Wolfson and Allie LaForce; and radio host Dana Jacobson.

They are joined by reporter Andrea Kremer of NFL Network and HBO Sports, boxer Laila Ali, basketball stars Lisa Leslie and Swin Cash, swimmers Dara Torres and Summer Sanders, and tennis player Katrina Adams.