MJ Acosta-Ruiz

Television reporter MJ Acosta rose swiftly from Spanish-language television in Florida to the sports anchor desk at the NBC affiliate in San Diego, California, which in turn led to national hosting duties for the competition series "Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge" (NBC, 2016-). Born Marjorie Acosta in New York City, she developed an interest in sports through her father, who played basketball for a local Optimist League. She earned a bachelor's degree in broadcasting from Barry University, and worked as a cheerleader for the Miami Dolphins football game before landing her first job in television as a sports and public affairs reporter for the Spanish-language WGEN. From there, Acosta served as an English- and Spanish-language announcer with the Florida Boxing Commission, and then anchored for the Generation Nexxt Youth Sports Network. She then returned to Florida television news as the sports and entertainment reporter at WPLG, the ABC affiliate in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. In 2016, Acosta headed west to serve as sports anchor for NBC affiliate KSND-TV and Telemundo 20 in San Diego. That same year, she signed on as host of "Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge," a competition series which pitted teams led by a member of the Spartan Pro Team against each other for the chance to win $250,000.