Humphrey's career in television began after leaving school. His first work for the BBC was for their children's channel CBBC, although a switch to sport from 2006 saw him become the youngest ever host of their football shows Football Focus, and later Match of the Day and Final Score. While continuing as a guest presenter on those shows, he also went on to present BBC coverage of international football. Outside of football, he has also presented BBC coverage of the Commonwealth Games and Summer Olympics, and of American Football in the Super Bowl and NFL International Series. He began presenting Grand Prix for the BBC after they regained the rights from ITV.
In late 2002, he hosted CBBC's coverage of Fame Academy, along with Holly Willoughby. They also presented the 2003 celebrity edition for Comic Relief. Humphrey also presented the 2005 and 2007 Comic Relief editions of Fame Academy, with Sophie McDonnell and Caroline Flack respectively. Jake Humphrey also presented CBBC show Against All Odds, a TV show that featured reconstructions of real life emergencies and gave First Aid advice to viewers.
Beginning in 2004, Jake Humphrey started hosting The Saturday Show and BAMZOOKi, but these roles ended in 2005 and 2006 respectively. He was a cover continuity presenter on CiTV at Birmingham. He also presented Newsround from 2005 till 2008. He was named anchorman of children's sports show Sportsround in September 2005, beginning a series of roles related to sports. Also he was the presenter on Gimme a Break in the first series.
He first hosted Football Focus in November 2006, covering for regular host Manish Bhasin who was presenting coverage of the 2006 Ashes. He later covered for Bhasin again during the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Jake Humphrey hosted Final Score when regular presenter Ray Stubbs was unable to do so. He first hosted Match of the Day for the FA Women's Cup final in May 2007, and then presented coverage of the 2007 Women's World Cup.
In October 2007, he became the BBC's first American Football host, subsequently presenting live coverages of Super Bowl XLII till Super Bowl XLVII. Humphrey presented the BBC's highlights shows for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations and he presented the FA Women's Cup final in 2008, the final Women's Cup Final on the BBC due to the end of the FA contract. Humphrey also hosted the afternoon show at the Olympics for the BBC in Beijing in 2008, and co-hosted BBC Sports Personality of the Year from 2008 until 2011 with Gary Lineker and Sue Barker.
In June 2012, he presented the BBC's coverage of the Euros with Alan Shearer. In July and August, Humphrey presented coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics. He anchored slots on BBC One and BBC Three, and presented coverage from the Velodrome with Chris Boardman and Mark Cavendish.[citation needed]
The 2013–14 football season saw the start of Humphrey's live coverage of BT Sport's Premier League programming. As well as hosting live coverage of the Premier League games, Humphrey would also be involved with the new channel's other football programming, working to mould the style of the new football programme.
In 2015 having hosted BT Sport's exclusively live Barclays Premier League football matches for the past two seasons. Humphrey would continue to host the channel's Premier League and FA Cup coverage and extend his role to include presenting exclusively live UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League games