ESPN host Malika Andrews was on air when a magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck Los Angeles on Monday afternoon (Pictures: ESPN)
A magnitude 4.4 earthquake shook the Los Angeles area and rattled a sports reporter’s live show in a terrifying moment.
The quake had an epicenter in El Sereno and was felt throughout much of Southern California at 12.20pm on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
There were no reports of damage immediately.
The earthquake’s power was captured on live television as ESPN host Malika Andrews spoke on air in the network’s Los Angeles studio at the very moment it struck.
‘As we have a bit of an earthquake here in Los Angeles,’ said Andrews as the camera tilted and shook for a couple of seconds.
Andrews proceeded to tell viewers that ESPN was going to ‘make sure that our studio lights, everything stays safe, everything’s shaking’.
She also called out specific crew members’ names to make sure they were fine.
‘OK thank you so much for bearing through us with that, our studio was shaking just a little bit,’ Andrews said.
ESPN host Malika Andrews was praised for how she handled her live shot while an earthquake shook the network’s Los Angeles studio (Picture: ESPN)
She then continued reporting business as usual.
‘Alright so this is what I want to show you right now,’ Andrews said, and told basketball analyst Rebecca Lobo who was speaking with her from another location that she appreciated her bearing through the interruption.
Lobo appeared shocked watching Andrews as the quake rocked the studio.
Andrews’ calm reaction the tremor and lack of screaming in fear or running out of the studio drew praise from social media users.
ESPN host Malika Andrews asked if crew members and others in the studio were OK after a tremor struck in the middle of a live broadcast (Picture: ESPN)
‘Props to Malika Andrews. Keeping it professional even when the ground’s shaking shows real composure. Not everyone could handle that,’ one X user wrote.
Another X user remarked in contrast to Andrews’ demeanor: ‘I would’ve fell to the floor immediately and started flipping around
El Sereno is about six miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The tremor was also recorded interrupting ESPN’s Travis and Sliwa Show radio broadcast, which was video recorded and shared on X (formerly Twitter). Producer Emily Hybl was seen ducking for cover as hosts said, ‘Is she alright over there?’ and that she ‘did it right’ dropping for cover.
Hybl got up later and said it was not the first quake she had experienced.
The quake was felt as far as San Diego in the south and Ventura in the north along the Pacific Coast, according to the US Geological Survey.
It was not immediately known if the quake was on the Puente Hills thrust fault, on the Lower Elysian Park thrust fault, or on another system between those two faults, Caltech research associate and seismologist Lucy Jones told the Times.
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