Burke, a former point guard at Providence College, has worked for ESPN since 1991, covering the WNBA and college basketball, serving as a sideline reporter during NBA games, and filling in as an NBA announcer only occasionally. This season, though, the network made her the first woman to work as a full-time game analyst on a national NBA broadcast, another step in a continuing cultural shift.

Rhimes is the third black woman to join the ranks of honorees; Oprah Winfrey was the first to be inducted in 1993, followed by actress and singer Diahann Carroll, who was inducted in 2011.

The series has been criticised in the past as sexist, classist and anti-environmentalist. Small changes have been introduced in recent years, including the arrival of a Japanese engine, Hiro, and a spin-off DVD featuring engines from other countries. But the new overhaul, beginning with the 2018 series, is the biggest transformation since the television adaptation was first broadcast in 1984.