Maria Sansone's Biography
She was spotted at just 11. Whilst at an Erie Wave basketball match, she competed in a half-time slam dunk contest and impressed Mike Gallagher, from the ABC affiliate in Erie, WJET-TV24, who persuaded his studio to create a news segment, Down to Size, which Maria would host.
Maria Sansone's next major breakthrough came when a reporter from the Wall Street Journal was impressed by her interview of Bill Cowher and ran a profile of Maria Sansone in the November 17, 1992 issue of the WSJ.
It led to appearances for Sansone on Good Morning America and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Still a youngster, Maria Sansone got more hosting and reporting work. For example, she was a correspondent on ABC's Little League World Series, and along with Ryan Seacrest she co-hosted Nickelodeon's Gladiators 2000.
Maria Sansone then resumed her studies at Villa Maria Academy and then was a TV/Radio/Film major at Syracuse's Newhouse School of Public Communications.
The breakthroughs did not stop. Whilst still at Syracuse, Maria Sansone entered a contest sending off a two-minute video, a photo and a letter on why she should be Kelly Ripa's replacement while she was on maternity leave.
Sansone ended up winning a spot to co-host Live as part of Co-ed Week.
In 2003, Maria Sansone graduated and worked in New York as a VJ for MTV’s college network, mtvU. She also hosted a music show, The Freshmen.
Maria Sansone was hired to host the internet web show on Yahoo TV called The 9, which launched on July 10, 2006.
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