Emma Paton is a popular host for Sky Sports and is the main presenter for major darts tournaments broadcast on Sky, however, she’s revealed her journey to the top has been the result of ‘random’ opportunities.
Darts has had many iconic personalities over the years that have not been players, including the likes of Russ Bray and Sid Waddell.
Since presenting the World Darts Championship in 2020, Emma Paton has joined that top tier with co-presenter Wayne Mardle referring to her as the ‘face of darts’ and the ‘governor’.
This wasn’t her planned route to TV fame though…
Emma says she watched darts as a casual fan at Christmas (like many) but wouldn’t watch the likes of the Premier League week in and week out, instead opting to follow the football Premier League as a Manchester United fan.
She started as a journalist for Sky Sports covering a broad range of sports writing feature pieces and news coverage for the Sky Sports App in 2012 but had ambitions to progress her career as a presenter or host.
Emma would eventually reach that milestone as a host for Sky Sports and Sky Sports News as well as covering the US Open, WWE and of course PDC darts.
In some aspects, she had a traditional journey from journalist to presenter but her big break came from the most unexpected encounter…
Emma Paton on Meeting Triple H and Her Big Break
Around 6-7 years ago, Emma had been working for Sky Sports for a similar number of years and wanted to progress from being a journalist to a presenter.
However, there were not many opportunities for what was an in-demand position with Sky.
Speaking to Wayne Mardle on the Club 501 YouTube channel, Emma Paton explains how her big break in tv presenting/reporting started with a ‘random’ Triple H encounter…
She said:
“I was working in production for Sky Sports News [behind the camera] working the early shift, the breakfast show, so getting to your desk for 3am in the morning.
“I was trying to find any kind of breakthrough to gain experience to be a presenter, but I’d never presented.
“I was doing screen test after screen test but not really getting anywhere, saying to people at Sky Sports News I want to present, what do I have to do for an opportunity?
“In the end, a colleague who worked on WWE at Sky invited me to a press day to watch an event [WWE] in London at The Royal Albert Hall.
“I went down and there was a press conference with Triple H on the top table with Shawn Michaels, another wrestler, and they were just taking questions from the press.
“The colleague that dragged me along said to ask a question, and I said I don’t know what to ask, so he said ask about the growth or women’s wrestling because we were talking about it earlier.
“So, I put my hand up and they brought a mic over and Triple H gave this really long answer.
“The press conference then wrapped up, I didn’t think anything of it but he comes over to me [Triple H] and introduces himself and asks my name.
“He then says – I might have an exclusive for you…”
Following this exchange, Emma didn’t think much more of it but a month later Sky Sports received an email that said the WWE wanted to give them an exclusive, as mentioned at the London event.
This was for an all women’s pay per view event which had never been done before but there was a surprising stipulation to this exclusive.
Triple H and Stephanie Mcmahon would like to invite Emma over to New York to cover the event for Sky.
With no previous presenting experience, Emma was requested by name to cover this huge event simply for asking Triple H a question at an event she went to randomly on a day off.
This would prove to be the big break that Emma had been looking for and this kickstarted the next chapter of her career that most of us know her for today.
You can watch the full episode below:
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