SportsCenter
Encyclopedia
SportsCenter is a daily sports news television show, and the flagship program of American cable network
ESPN
since the network launched on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major sporting events, along with commentary, previews and feature stories. The show has proven highly durable, having been aired more times than any other program in American television, with more than 30,000 unique episodes. It celebrated its 35,000th show in 2009. The show is taped in ESPN's HDTV studio facilities in Bristol, Connecticut
and Los Angeles, California
.
to 3 ET, as well as at 6 ET (typically 60 or 90 minutes), 11 ET and 1 AM ET (typically 60 minutes each). The 1 AM ET edition is repeated at 2 AM ET and again from 5-9 AM ET.
Saturday viewers on average are around 15 million. On Sundays it is more around 20 million. an hour-long episode airs at 8 AM ET and another edition of varying length airs at 10 AM ET; the 11 ET edition airs for 90 minutes on Sundays and is repeated through the night. In the event of live sports coverage on the network, the show is occasionally delayed or moved to another ESPN channel. The show also is known to start early and run long, if the preceding game ends ahead of schedule or if breaking news warrants. The 1 AM ET (10 PT) edition of SportsCenter now airs live from Los Angeles and repeats throughout the night.
George Grande
introduced the country to ESPN when he co-anchored the first episode of SportsCenter on September 7, 1979. His co-anchor was Lee Leonard
, a longtime New York broadcaster. According to Entertainment Weekly
, Leonard spoke these words as the show opened: "If you're a fan, what you will see in the next minutes, hours, and days to follow may convince you that you've gone to sports heaven." Grande spent ten more years with ESPN and SportsCenter until 1989. Another early addition to the show was Chris Berman, who joined ESPN a month after its debut and became a fixture at SportsCenter until the early '90s, when his main efforts became focused on the network's NFL coverage
and Baseball Tonight
; however, Berman remains a frequent contributor to the Sunday night 11 p.m. edition. Bob Ley
also began anchoring early in the show's history and still regularly appears on the Sunday morning SportsCenter in addition to hosting Outside the Lines
.
Early graphics and music included various kinds of sports balls flying outward, featuring a rapid-fire electronic audio track that was a version of "Pulstar", by Vangelis
. By the early 1990s, the first of several theme songs to incorporate ESPN's trademark "duh-nuh-nuh, duh-nuh-nuh" fanfare was in use. The current theme music was composed by Annie Roboff, who also co-wrote Faith Hill
's 1998 hit "This Kiss
".
Throughout the 1990s, SportsCenters set saw many changes (see below). In 1994, ESPN began the This is SportsCenter
ad campaign to promote the show.
The 11 p.m. anchor team of Dan Patrick
and Keith Olbermann
achieved great popularity in the late '80s and the '90s (interrupted by Olbermann's brief move to ESPN2
at that channel's launch). After Olbermann left ESPN in 1997, Kenny Mayne
became Patrick's co-host; when Patrick moved to the 6:00 p.m. edition, Rich Eisen and Stuart Scott
became the top anchor team.
In 2001, Bell Globemedia
and ESPN (who received a minority stake) jointly acquired the Canadian sports network TSN
. As part of its shift to ESPN-influenced branding, it re-named its own sports news program SportsDesk to SportsCentre
using the same intros and theme as the ESPN version, except with its title rendered using Canadian spelling.
to cover the immediate aftermath of the attacks on America
through a simulcast
of sister network ABC
. The network considered not airing SportsCenter that night, and debated the topic for about an hour. Finally, a half-hour version aired which reported on the impact the attacks had on the sports world, announcing the cancellations of major U.S. sporting events that had been announced up to that time.
(situated in a studio at ESPN's new "Digital Center"), and a new graphics package entitled "Revolution" designed by Troika Design Group
. During that summer, ESPN celebrated its 25th anniversary
, by counting down the top 100 moments of the past 25 years. They showed the countdown every day starting May 31, 2004, until the #1 moment, the United States men's national ice hockey team's victory
over the USSR
during the 1980 Winter Olympics
, was aired on September 7, 2004.
Over the summer of 2005, SportsCenter premiered a segment called "50 States in 50 Days", where a different SportsCenter anchor traveled to a different state every day to discover the sports, sports history, and athletes of the state.
On April 4, 2006, SportsCenter started showing highlights of Major League Baseball
games in progress, which were previously an exclusive to another program, Baseball Tonight
. This is seen in the Baseball Tonight Extra segment. Prior to that date, highlights of the aforementioned Major League Baseball games weren't shown on SportsCenter until the games were completed.
On February 11, 2007, after the NBA
game between the Chicago Bulls
and the Phoenix Suns
, the 30,000th SportsCenter show aired. In that milestone show, Bob Ley
recapped the events (and not-so-great moments) during the first 10,000 shows, Chris Berman did the same during the middle 10,000, as did Dan Patrick
during the remaining 10,000. Steve Levy
and Stuart Scott
were the anchors on that 30,000th show. They also began broadcasting SportsCenter Minute, which is a web-streaming one-minute SportsCenter update seen exclusively on ESPN.com
.
The 11 p.m. Eastern Time
edition on May 6, 2007 saw another major change, as SportsCenter introduced a "rundown" graphic across the right side of the screen. This feature appears only during reruns of the overnight show Monday through Saturday and on the main Sunday night program; on ESPNHD, it fills the right pillarbox where the ESPNHD logo would usually appear during standard definition footage.
The 6 p.m. ET edition of SportsCenter moved up to 5 p.m. ET on May 28, 2007, and was, for the first time ever, extended to three hours. In that episode, ESPN aired live coverage of Roger Clemens
's second start for the New York Yankees
' minor league club in Scranton, Pennsylvania
.
The 11 p.m. ET edition of SportsCenter on August 7, 2007, which was anchored by John Buccigross
and Cindy Brunson
, showed live coverage of Barry Bonds
's 756th career home run
, which broke the old MLB record set by Hank Aaron. (ESPN was carrying the game live on ESPN2.)
. The original plan was to start the live block at 6 a.m.; however, the network decided to scale it back before the expansion came to pass.
Former NBC Sports and CBS Early Show anchor Hannah Storm
has joined ESPN to host the 9 a.m. to noon block. The new format now includes two teams of two anchors in three-hour shifts:
Sage Steele
will provide updates every 30 minutes from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
This change also includes a new SportsCenter.com Web site to promote more interaction with viewers. The SportsCenter.com site was launched 8/11/08.
To promote these changes, ESPN held a casting of their employees to see who would be on almost 25 live and unscripted commercials a day. Steve Braband, an International Programmer, won, and can be seen about every half-hour (excluding from 1 to 4 CST) on ESPN. Additionally, the website steveislive.com was opened, with Steve's daily appearance schedule, blog, and video clips of past appearances and audition footage.
, ESPN Classic
and ESPNU
, but it was quickly removed and reverted back to the old BottomLine (which had been used since April 2003) due to an equipment failure (however, this ticker was successful for the 2009 NFL Draft
and the 2009 NBA Draft
). The problem was later fixed and the new BottomLine returned on July 8.
April 6, 2009 also saw the launch of West Coast production of SportsCenter for the first time. The 1 a.m. ET (10 PT) edition of SportsCenter now airs live from ESPN's production facilities in the newly constructed L.A. Live complex just across from the Staples Center
. The set is virtually identical to the main facilities in Bristol and will, for the time being, be produced as just another edition of the show. Neil Everett
and Stan Verrett
are the primary anchors for the Los Angeles-produced editions of this series.
The 2009 U.S. Open Golf Championship
, which was repeatedly delayed due to weather, aired on both NBC
and ESPN. Portions of ESPN's broadcast, including the early parts of the Monday final round, were presented as SportsCenter, specifically "SportsCenter at the U.S. Open" which is similar to segments within the show with nightly highlights and analysis that originate from the event locations, much like "SportsCenter at the Super Bowl" and "SportsCenter at the World Series", etc.
In August 2009, Robert Flores, co-anchor of the noon-3pm ET SportsCenter, was replaced in that capacity with John Buccigross. A completely redesigned sportscenter.com Web site was launched 2009-11-16.
. The 30-minute program runs five days a week from 7am GMT, with an updated show at 10.30pm GMT.
Starting August 30, 2010, an additional 7 hours of SportsCenter began airing weekdays on ESPNEWS
. The new segments are from 3-6pm ET and 7-11pm ET.
By late 2010, the "rundown" graphic was seen on all SportsCenter editions.
& was replaced in that capacity by Kevin Negandhi
.
By mid-2011, shortly after ESPN and ESPN2 both switched to a 16:9 letterbox format (in compliance with the #10 AFD code), SportsCenter began showing the entire high-definition footage and standard-definition footage (with the ESPN logo on both pillarboxes). That required the 16:9 letterbox image to be shrunk in order for it to happen, with the "rundown" graphic seen on the left side of the screen. As of July 21, 2011, ESPNEWS still broadcasts SportsCenter in a 4:3 standard-definition format.
In August of 2011, John Anderson
, who was previously the 11pm ET anchor, moved up to the 6pm spot, replacing Brian Kenny
(who departed for the MLB Network
).
also has ESPN Radio SportsCenter
with radio highlights airing three times an hour on the ESPN Radio network.
, NHL
and college sports conferences, allow for brief highlights to be shown while the game is in progress. Major League Baseball
allows them only as part of the Baseball Tonight
mini-programs, as mentioned above. The NFL
does not allow in-progress highlights at all outside of its own live game broadcasts.
ESPN is traditionally unable to air highlights of Olympic Games
events until after the events have aired on tape-delay on the broadcast network holding the rights. ESPN began to show more Olympics highlights on-air and online beginning with the 2006 Winter Olympics
; they received these extended rights from NBC as part of the deal that saw ABC release Al Michaels
from his contract, so he could join John Madden and key production personnel for the new NBC Sunday Night Football
. (This same deal gave back the Walt Disney produced Oswald The Lucky Rabbit
cartoons that were originally distributed by Universal.)
In addition, there are many anecdotal reports of various TV networks (such as CBS Sports
and NBC Sports
) that will not release highlights of certain sporting events to ESPN unless its name is labeled across the screen for the entire length of the highlight (Courtesy NBC Sports, etc.). (In some cases, the same stipulation is made to competing programs like FSN
's Final Score, but not in all.)
As of 2007, ESPN no longer displays the actual name of the NASCAR
Nationwide Series or Sprint Cup Series race during highlights of such (Example: the "Allstate 400 at the Brickyard
" was re-dubbed the "Brickyard 400 pres. by Golden Corral
") unless the title sponsor of the race is paid for to the network. A similar stipulation also applies to the network's Izod IndyCar Series coverage.
Cable network
A cable channel is a television channel available via cable television. Such channels are usually also available via satellite television, including direct broadcast satellite providers such as DirecTV, Dish Network and BSkyB...
ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
since the network launched on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major sporting events, along with commentary, previews and feature stories. The show has proven highly durable, having been aired more times than any other program in American television, with more than 30,000 unique episodes. It celebrated its 35,000th show in 2009. The show is taped in ESPN's HDTV studio facilities in Bristol, Connecticut
Bristol, Connecticut
Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States southwest of Hartford. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 61,353. Bristol is primarily known as the home of ESPN, whose central studios are in the city. Bristol is also home to...
and Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
Air times
SportsCenter normally airs live on weekdays from 9 AM ETEastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
to 3 ET, as well as at 6 ET (typically 60 or 90 minutes), 11 ET and 1 AM ET (typically 60 minutes each). The 1 AM ET edition is repeated at 2 AM ET and again from 5-9 AM ET.
Saturday viewers on average are around 15 million. On Sundays it is more around 20 million. an hour-long episode airs at 8 AM ET and another edition of varying length airs at 10 AM ET; the 11 ET edition airs for 90 minutes on Sundays and is repeated through the night. In the event of live sports coverage on the network, the show is occasionally delayed or moved to another ESPN channel. The show also is known to start early and run long, if the preceding game ends ahead of schedule or if breaking news warrants. The 1 AM ET (10 PT) edition of SportsCenter now airs live from Los Angeles and repeats throughout the night.
History
SportsCenter was conceived and created by executive editor John A. Walsh.George Grande
George Grande
George Grande is an American sportscaster who hosted the very first broadcast of SportsCenter on ESPN in 1979.-Early life and career:He graduated from the University of Southern California in 1969, where he won the 1968 College World Series...
introduced the country to ESPN when he co-anchored the first episode of SportsCenter on September 7, 1979. His co-anchor was Lee Leonard
Lee Leonard
Lee Leonard is an American television personality who was involved in the launch of cable television networks ESPN and CNN.-Early life:...
, a longtime New York broadcaster. According to Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, Leonard spoke these words as the show opened: "If you're a fan, what you will see in the next minutes, hours, and days to follow may convince you that you've gone to sports heaven." Grande spent ten more years with ESPN and SportsCenter until 1989. Another early addition to the show was Chris Berman, who joined ESPN a month after its debut and became a fixture at SportsCenter until the early '90s, when his main efforts became focused on the network's NFL coverage
Sunday NFL Countdown
NFL GameDay redirects here. For the video games series, see NFL GameDay Sunday NFL Countdown is a pregame show of all the NFL action for that week. The official name is Sunday NFL Countdown presented by IBM. The show airs on ESPN, ESPN HD, TSN and TSN HD from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern time every...
and Baseball Tonight
Baseball Tonight
Baseball Tonight is a program that airs on ESPN. The show, which recapitulates the day's Major League Baseball action, has been on the air since 1990.-Air times:...
; however, Berman remains a frequent contributor to the Sunday night 11 p.m. edition. Bob Ley
Bob Ley
Bob Ley is a sportscaster for ESPN. He, along with Chris Berman, is one of only two original SportsCenter anchors still with the network.-Biography:...
also began anchoring early in the show's history and still regularly appears on the Sunday morning SportsCenter in addition to hosting Outside the Lines
Outside the Lines
Outside the Lines, or also referred to as OTL, is an American television program on ESPN that looks "outside the lines" and examines critical issues in American sports on and off the field of play....
.
1988–2001
In 1988, the format was changed by executive editor John Walsh from individual sports or leagues to "newspaper style." Thus, it aired stories based on their importance regardless of the sport.Early graphics and music included various kinds of sports balls flying outward, featuring a rapid-fire electronic audio track that was a version of "Pulstar", by Vangelis
Vangelis
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou is a Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, pop rock and orchestral music, under the artist name Vangelis...
. By the early 1990s, the first of several theme songs to incorporate ESPN's trademark "duh-nuh-nuh, duh-nuh-nuh" fanfare was in use. The current theme music was composed by Annie Roboff, who also co-wrote Faith Hill
Faith Hill
Faith Hill is an American country singer. She is known both for her commercial success and her marriage to fellow country star Tim McGraw. Hill has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and accumulated eight number-one singles and three number-one albums on the U.S...
's 1998 hit "This Kiss
This Kiss
"This Kiss" is a song written by Beth Nielsen Chapman, Robin Lerner and Annie Roboff, and recorded by American country music singer Faith Hill. Released on March 10, 1998 as the first single from her 1998 album Faith, it became a crossover single, reaching #1 on the U.S...
".
Throughout the 1990s, SportsCenters set saw many changes (see below). In 1994, ESPN began the This is SportsCenter
This is SportsCenter
This is SportsCenter is the name of a series of comical television commercials run by ESPN to promote their SportsCenter sports news show. The ads are presented in a deadpan mockumentary style, lampooning various aspects of sports, and sports broadcasting. The commercials debuted in 1994...
ad campaign to promote the show.
The 11 p.m. anchor team of Dan Patrick
Dan Patrick
Daniel Patrick Pugh , professionally known as Dan Patrick, is an American sportscaster, radio personality, and actor from Mason, Ohio...
and Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann
Keith Theodore Olbermann is an American political commentator and writer. He has been the chief news officer of the Current TV network and the host of Current TV's weeknight political commentary program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, since June 20, 2011...
achieved great popularity in the late '80s and the '90s (interrupted by Olbermann's brief move to ESPN2
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN. The channel debuted on October 1, 1993.Originally nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross,...
at that channel's launch). After Olbermann left ESPN in 1997, Kenny Mayne
Kenny Mayne
Kenneth "Kenny" Wheelock Mayne is a sports journalist and comedian for ESPN.-Sports career:A native of Kent, Washington, Mayne is a former honorable mention junior college All-American quarterback in 1978 at Wenatchee Valley Community College in Wenatchee, WA...
became Patrick's co-host; when Patrick moved to the 6:00 p.m. edition, Rich Eisen and Stuart Scott
Stuart Scott
Stuart Scott is a sportscaster and anchor on ESPN's SportsCenter.-Early life and career:Scott attended Richard J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and went to college at the University of North Carolina. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity...
became the top anchor team.
In 2001, Bell Globemedia
CTVglobemedia
CTVglobemedia , was one of Canada's largest private media companies. Its operations include newspaper publishing , television broadcasting and production , radio broadcasting , and their respective Internet properties.Originally established by BCE and the Thomson family in 2001 combining CTV Inc.,...
and ESPN (who received a minority stake) jointly acquired the Canadian sports network TSN
The Sports Network
The Sports Network, commonly abbreviated as TSN, is a Canadian English language Category C specialty channel and is Canada's leading English language sports TV channel. TSN premiered in 1984, in the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels...
. As part of its shift to ESPN-influenced branding, it re-named its own sports news program SportsDesk to SportsCentre
SportsCentre
SportsCentre is a sports news program airing on the Canadian network TSN. As TSN's flagship program, it airs several times daily, and beginning in the 2008 season it also began to be aired on sister network CTV as its post-game program for early NFL games....
using the same intros and theme as the ESPN version, except with its title rendered using Canadian spelling.
September 11, 2001
On September 11, 2001, ESPN interrupted regular programming at 11:05 a.m. Eastern TimeNorth American Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
to cover the immediate aftermath of the attacks on America
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
through a simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
of sister network ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. The network considered not airing SportsCenter that night, and debated the topic for about an hour. Finally, a half-hour version aired which reported on the impact the attacks had on the sports world, announcing the cancellations of major U.S. sporting events that had been announced up to that time.
2004-2008
SportsCenter began broadcasting in High definition on June 7, 2004. Along with the conversion came a new set designed by Walt Disney ImagineeringWalt Disney Imagineering
Walt Disney Imagineering is the design and development arm of the Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation and construction of Disney theme parks worldwide...
(situated in a studio at ESPN's new "Digital Center"), and a new graphics package entitled "Revolution" designed by Troika Design Group
Troika Design Group
Troika Design Group is a broadcast design and network branding agency based in Hollywood, CA. Troika is owned by Chuck Carey and Dan Pappalardo and specializes in design, branding and positioning for clients within the media and entertainment industries....
. During that summer, ESPN celebrated its 25th anniversary
ESPN25
ESPN25 is a special event conducted to mark the 25th anniversary of ESPN.During the run-up to the anniversary date of January 1, 2004, the network counted down the top sports moments of the last 25 years . The list featured concentrated almost exclusively on moments involving Americans...
, by counting down the top 100 moments of the past 25 years. They showed the countdown every day starting May 31, 2004, until the #1 moment, the United States men's national ice hockey team's victory
Miracle on Ice
The "Miracle on Ice" is the name in American popular culture for a medal-round men's ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, on Friday, February 22...
over the USSR
Soviet national ice hockey team
The Soviet national ice hockey team , was the national hockey team of the Soviet Union. The Soviets were the most dominant team of all time in international play. The team won nearly every world championship and Olympic tournament between 1954 and 1991 held by the International Ice Hockey Federation...
during the 1980 Winter Olympics
1980 Winter Olympics
The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIII Olympic Winter Games, was a multi-sport event which was celebrated from 13 February through 24 February 1980 in Lake Placid, New York, United States of America. This was the second time the Upstate New York village hosted the Games, after 1932...
, was aired on September 7, 2004.
Over the summer of 2005, SportsCenter premiered a segment called "50 States in 50 Days", where a different SportsCenter anchor traveled to a different state every day to discover the sports, sports history, and athletes of the state.
On April 4, 2006, SportsCenter started showing highlights of Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
games in progress, which were previously an exclusive to another program, Baseball Tonight
Baseball Tonight
Baseball Tonight is a program that airs on ESPN. The show, which recapitulates the day's Major League Baseball action, has been on the air since 1990.-Air times:...
. This is seen in the Baseball Tonight Extra segment. Prior to that date, highlights of the aforementioned Major League Baseball games weren't shown on SportsCenter until the games were completed.
On February 11, 2007, after the NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
game between the Chicago Bulls
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
and the Phoenix Suns
Phoenix Suns
The Phoenix Suns are a professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association and the only team in their division not to be based in California. Their home arena since 1992 has been the US...
, the 30,000th SportsCenter show aired. In that milestone show, Bob Ley
Bob Ley
Bob Ley is a sportscaster for ESPN. He, along with Chris Berman, is one of only two original SportsCenter anchors still with the network.-Biography:...
recapped the events (and not-so-great moments) during the first 10,000 shows, Chris Berman did the same during the middle 10,000, as did Dan Patrick
Dan Patrick
Daniel Patrick Pugh , professionally known as Dan Patrick, is an American sportscaster, radio personality, and actor from Mason, Ohio...
during the remaining 10,000. Steve Levy
Steve Levy
Steve Levy is a journalist for ESPN.-Early life and career:Levy was a 1987 graduate of the State University of New York at Oswego. He also attended John F. Kennedy High School...
and Stuart Scott
Stuart Scott
Stuart Scott is a sportscaster and anchor on ESPN's SportsCenter.-Early life and career:Scott attended Richard J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and went to college at the University of North Carolina. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity...
were the anchors on that 30,000th show. They also began broadcasting SportsCenter Minute, which is a web-streaming one-minute SportsCenter update seen exclusively on ESPN.com
ESPN.com
ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN and a division of ESPN Inc. Since launching in 1995 as ESPNet.SportsZone.com, the website has developed numerous sections including: Page 2, SportsNation, ESPN 3.com, ESPN Motion, My ESPN, ESPN Sports Travel, ESPN Video Games, ESPN Insider, ESPN.com's...
.
The 11 p.m. Eastern Time
North American Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
edition on May 6, 2007 saw another major change, as SportsCenter introduced a "rundown" graphic across the right side of the screen. This feature appears only during reruns of the overnight show Monday through Saturday and on the main Sunday night program; on ESPNHD, it fills the right pillarbox where the ESPNHD logo would usually appear during standard definition footage.
The 6 p.m. ET edition of SportsCenter moved up to 5 p.m. ET on May 28, 2007, and was, for the first time ever, extended to three hours. In that episode, ESPN aired live coverage of Roger Clemens
Roger Clemens
William Roger Clemens , nicknamed "Rocket", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who broke into the league with the Boston Red Sox, whose pitching staff he would help anchor for 12 years. Clemens won seven Cy Young Awards, more than any other pitcher. He played for four different teams over...
's second start for the New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
' minor league club in Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area. Scranton had a population of 76,089 in 2010, according to the U.S...
.
The 11 p.m. ET edition of SportsCenter on August 7, 2007, which was anchored by John Buccigross
John Buccigross
John Buccigross , has been an anchor for ESPN since 1996.-Biography:A graduate of Steubenville Catholic Central High School in Steubenville, OH, and Heidelberg College , his television duties include the Emmy winning SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight...
and Cindy Brunson
Cindy Brunson
-Biography:Brunson graduated from Washington State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast communications.-Broadcasting career:Cindy Brunson joined ESPN as an ESPNEWS anchor in September 1999. Until recently, Brunson served as co-host alongside David Lloyd on the network's weekend...
, showed live coverage of Barry Bonds
Barry Bonds
Barry Lamar Bonds is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder. Bonds played from 1986 to 2007, for the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants. He is the son of former major league All-Star Bobby Bonds...
's 756th career home run
Home run
In baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process...
, which broke the old MLB record set by Hank Aaron. (ESPN was carrying the game live on ESPN2.)
2008 daytime expansion
On August 11, 2008, during the opening week of the Beijing Olympic Games, SportsCenter began airing live from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. ETNorth American Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
. The original plan was to start the live block at 6 a.m.; however, the network decided to scale it back before the expansion came to pass.
Former NBC Sports and CBS Early Show anchor Hannah Storm
Hannah Storm
Hannah Storm is an American television sports journalist, serving as co-anchor of ESPN's SportsCenter Monday–Thursday mornings, and is also host of the NBA Countdown pregame show on ABC as part of the network's NBA Sunday game coverage.-Early life and career:Storm was born in Oak Park, Illinois,...
has joined ESPN to host the 9 a.m. to noon block. The new format now includes two teams of two anchors in three-hour shifts:
- 9 a.m. - Noon ET: Kevin NegandhiKevin NegandhiKevin Negandhi is a current ESPN SportsCenter anchor. He also hosts Baseball Tonight, College Football Live and Outside the Lines on ESPN and is a fill-in Anchor on NFL Live and Cold Pizza. He's the first Anchor of Indian-American descent to be on a national sports network in American Television...
, Hannah StormHannah StormHannah Storm is an American television sports journalist, serving as co-anchor of ESPN's SportsCenter Monday–Thursday mornings, and is also host of the NBA Countdown pregame show on ABC as part of the network's NBA Sunday game coverage.-Early life and career:Storm was born in Oak Park, Illinois,... - Noon - 3 p.m. ET: John BuccigrossJohn BuccigrossJohn Buccigross , has been an anchor for ESPN since 1996.-Biography:A graduate of Steubenville Catholic Central High School in Steubenville, OH, and Heidelberg College , his television duties include the Emmy winning SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight...
, Chris McKendryChris McKendryChris McKendry has been a journalist for ESPN since 1996. Currently, she primarily serves as co-anchor of the 12-3pm ET weekday block of live SportsCenter shows, alongside John Buccigross...
Sage Steele
Sage Steele
Sage Steele is a SportsCenter anchor for the weekend morning editions of SportsCenter. She also hosts the 9:00 a.m. ET and 12:00 p.m. ET SportsCenter shows during the week.-Early life:...
will provide updates every 30 minutes from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
This change also includes a new SportsCenter.com Web site to promote more interaction with viewers. The SportsCenter.com site was launched 8/11/08.
To promote these changes, ESPN held a casting of their employees to see who would be on almost 25 live and unscripted commercials a day. Steve Braband, an International Programmer, won, and can be seen about every half-hour (excluding from 1 to 4 CST) on ESPN. Additionally, the website steveislive.com was opened, with Steve's daily appearance schedule, blog, and video clips of past appearances and audition footage.
2009
Starting with the 9 a.m.-noon ET edition (which was anchored by Hannah Storm and Sage Steele), SportsCenter debuted a new graphics package on April 6, 2009, with the "rundown" graphic (shown during the daytime editions) moved to the left side of the screen. A new BottomLine was also released that day on ESPN, ESPN2ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN. The channel debuted on October 1, 1993.Originally nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross,...
, ESPN Classic
ESPN Classic
ESPN Classic is a sports channel that features reruns of famous sporting events, sports documentaries, and sports themed movies. Such programs includes biographies of famous sports figures or a rerun of a famous World Series or Super Bowl, often with added commentary on the event...
and ESPNU
ESPNU
ESPNU is a television channel that specializes in college sports, and is produced by, affiliated with and owned by parent network ESPN. ESPNU originates out of ESPN Regional Television's ESPNU (often referred to as The U) is a television channel that specializes in college sports, and is produced...
, but it was quickly removed and reverted back to the old BottomLine (which had been used since April 2003) due to an equipment failure (however, this ticker was successful for the 2009 NFL Draft
2009 NFL Draft
The 2009 NFL Draft was the seventy-fourth annual meeting of National Football League franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on April 25 and 26, 2009. The draft consisted of two rounds on the first day starting at 4:00...
and the 2009 NBA Draft
2009 NBA Draft
The 2009 NBA Draft was held on June 25, 2009, the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. In this draft, National Basketball Association teams took turns selecting amateur U.S...
). The problem was later fixed and the new BottomLine returned on July 8.
April 6, 2009 also saw the launch of West Coast production of SportsCenter for the first time. The 1 a.m. ET (10 PT) edition of SportsCenter now airs live from ESPN's production facilities in the newly constructed L.A. Live complex just across from the Staples Center
Staples Center
Staples Center is a multi-purpose sports arena in Downtown Los Angeles. Adjacent to the L.A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street. Opening on October 17, 1999, it is one of the major sporting facilities in the Greater Los Angeles...
. The set is virtually identical to the main facilities in Bristol and will, for the time being, be produced as just another edition of the show. Neil Everett
Neil Everett
Neil Everett Morfitt, known professionally as Neil Everett, is a sportscaster for the ESPN cable network. He is co-anchor of the West Coast edition of SportsCenter.-Biography:...
and Stan Verrett
Stan Verrett
Stan Verrett is an anchor on the ESPN and ESPNEWS networks in the United States. Most of Verrett's appearances are on SportsCenter at 11 p.m or 1 a.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday...
are the primary anchors for the Los Angeles-produced editions of this series.
The 2009 U.S. Open Golf Championship
2009 U.S. Open Golf Championship
The 2009 United States Open Championship was the 109th U.S. Open, and was played June 18-22 on the Black Course of Bethpage State Park on Long Island, New York. It was won by Lucas Glover with a 4 under par score of 276....
, which was repeatedly delayed due to weather, aired on both NBC
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is the sports division of the NBC television network. Formerly "a service of NBC News," it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games, the NFL, the NHL, MLS, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Triple Crown, and the French Open, among others...
and ESPN. Portions of ESPN's broadcast, including the early parts of the Monday final round, were presented as SportsCenter, specifically "SportsCenter at the U.S. Open" which is similar to segments within the show with nightly highlights and analysis that originate from the event locations, much like "SportsCenter at the Super Bowl" and "SportsCenter at the World Series", etc.
In August 2009, Robert Flores, co-anchor of the noon-3pm ET SportsCenter, was replaced in that capacity with John Buccigross. A completely redesigned sportscenter.com Web site was launched 2009-11-16.
2010
On March 1, 2010, European ESPN channel ESPN America began airing a special European edition of SportsCenter, anchored by Michael KimMichael Kim
Michael Kim is a presenter for SportsCenter on ESPN.Kim joined ESPN as one of the original presenters on ESPNEWS prior to its November 1, 1996, launch...
. The 30-minute program runs five days a week from 7am GMT, with an updated show at 10.30pm GMT.
Starting August 30, 2010, an additional 7 hours of SportsCenter began airing weekdays on ESPNEWS
ESPNEWS
ESPNEWS , launched on November 1, 1996, is a 24-hour-a-day sports news television channel...
. The new segments are from 3-6pm ET and 7-11pm ET.
By late 2010, the "rundown" graphic was seen on all SportsCenter editions.
2011
On April 22, 2011, Josh Elliott, original and main co-anchor of the 9am-noon ET SportsCenter, left the network to join ABC's Good Morning AmericaGood Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
& was replaced in that capacity by Kevin Negandhi
Kevin Negandhi
Kevin Negandhi is a current ESPN SportsCenter anchor. He also hosts Baseball Tonight, College Football Live and Outside the Lines on ESPN and is a fill-in Anchor on NFL Live and Cold Pizza. He's the first Anchor of Indian-American descent to be on a national sports network in American Television...
.
By mid-2011, shortly after ESPN and ESPN2 both switched to a 16:9 letterbox format (in compliance with the #10 AFD code), SportsCenter began showing the entire high-definition footage and standard-definition footage (with the ESPN logo on both pillarboxes). That required the 16:9 letterbox image to be shrunk in order for it to happen, with the "rundown" graphic seen on the left side of the screen. As of July 21, 2011, ESPNEWS still broadcasts SportsCenter in a 4:3 standard-definition format.
In August of 2011, John Anderson
John Anderson
-Science and medicine:* Jock R. Anderson, Australian economist* John Anderson , Scottish zoologist* John August Anderson , American physicist and astronomer* John Stuart Anderson , British/Australian inorganic chemist...
, who was previously the 11pm ET anchor, moved up to the 6pm spot, replacing Brian Kenny
Brian Kenny
Brian Kenny may refer to:*Brian Kenny , MLB Network personality and journalist*Brian Kenny , Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick*Brian Kenny , British Army General...
(who departed for the MLB Network
MLB Network
MLB Network is an American television specialty channel dedicated to professional baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball. Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications have minority ownership of the new network, with MLB retaining a controlling two-thirds share...
).
Anchors and reporters
The following weekday schedule is used:- 9am-noon ET: Kevin Neghandi and Hannah Storm
- Noon-3pm ET: John Buccigross and Chris McKendry
- 3pm-6pm ET: various(ESPNEWS)
- 6pm-7pm ET: Jay Harris and John Anderson (and 7pm-8pm on ESPNEWS)
- 8pm-11pm ET: various (ESPNEWS)
- 11pm-12am ET: Scott Van Pelt or Steve Levy or John Anderson
- 1am-2am ET: Neil Everett, Stan Verett (Los Angeles)
ESPN Radio
ESPN RadioESPN Radio
ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
also has ESPN Radio SportsCenter
ESPN Radio SportsCenter
ESPN Radio SportsCenter has sports updates two or three times an hour during key time slots, usually by separate anchors. Weekdays from 6am to 4pm Eastern, there are two updates an hour, at the top of the hour and 30 minutes past...
with radio highlights airing three times an hour on the ESPN Radio network.
Conditions to showing highlights
Some sports leagues and organizations, including the NBANational Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
, NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
and college sports conferences, allow for brief highlights to be shown while the game is in progress. Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
allows them only as part of the Baseball Tonight
Baseball Tonight
Baseball Tonight is a program that airs on ESPN. The show, which recapitulates the day's Major League Baseball action, has been on the air since 1990.-Air times:...
mini-programs, as mentioned above. The NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
does not allow in-progress highlights at all outside of its own live game broadcasts.
ESPN is traditionally unable to air highlights of Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
events until after the events have aired on tape-delay on the broadcast network holding the rights. ESPN began to show more Olympics highlights on-air and online beginning with the 2006 Winter Olympics
2006 Winter Olympics
The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Turin, Italy from February 10, 2006, through February 26, 2006. This marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, the first being the VII Olympic Winter...
; they received these extended rights from NBC as part of the deal that saw ABC release Al Michaels
Al Michaels
Alan Richard "Al" Michaels is an American television sportscaster. Now employed by NBC Sports after nearly three decades with ABC Sports, Michaels is one of the most prominent members of his profession...
from his contract, so he could join John Madden and key production personnel for the new NBC Sunday Night Football
NBC Sunday Night Football
NBC Sunday Night Football is a weekly television broadcast of Sunday evening National Football League games on NBC that began airing on Sunday, August 6, 2006 with the pre-season opening Hall of Fame Game. Al Michaels serves as the play-by-play announcer, with Cris Collinsworth as the color...
. (This same deal gave back the Walt Disney produced Oswald The Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is an anthropomorphic rabbit and animated cartoon character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney for films distributed by Universal Pictures in the 1920s and 1930s...
cartoons that were originally distributed by Universal.)
In addition, there are many anecdotal reports of various TV networks (such as CBS Sports
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is a division of CBS Broadcasting which airs sporting events on the American television network. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on West 52nd Street in midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street.CBS...
and NBC Sports
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is the sports division of the NBC television network. Formerly "a service of NBC News," it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games, the NFL, the NHL, MLS, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Triple Crown, and the French Open, among others...
) that will not release highlights of certain sporting events to ESPN unless its name is labeled across the screen for the entire length of the highlight (Courtesy NBC Sports, etc.). (In some cases, the same stipulation is made to competing programs like FSN
FSN
FSN may refer to:* Fate/stay night, a visual novel and its adaptations.* The Federal Stock Number, a numeric code used to identify items in the Joint Army-Navy Catalog System....
's Final Score, but not in all.)
As of 2007, ESPN no longer displays the actual name of the NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
Nationwide Series or Sprint Cup Series race during highlights of such (Example: the "Allstate 400 at the Brickyard
2009 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard
The 2009 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard was the twenty-first race of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season and the sixteenth NASCAR race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway . It was the first race under the ESPN/ABC section of the TV coverage for the 2009 season...
" was re-dubbed the "Brickyard 400 pres. by Golden Corral
Golden Corral
Golden Corral is an American family-style restaurant chain that features a large buffet and grill offering numerous hot and cold items, a carving station and their Brass Bell Bakery...
") unless the title sponsor of the race is paid for to the network. A similar stipulation also applies to the network's Izod IndyCar Series coverage.
Spin offs
- BassCenter (2003–2006)
- ScoreCenter on ESPN MobileTV (2007–present)
- SportsCenterUSportsCenterUSportsCenterU is the college version of ESPN's flagship program SportsCenter which airs exclusively on ESPNU. The college sports news and highlight show focuses on reports of the day from men’s and women’s intercollegiate athletics including football, basketball, softball, baseball, lacrosse,...
(2006–present) - X CenterX CenterX Center is a SportsCenter spin-off on ESPN/ESPN2 that focuses on the X Games. The show appears four times for both the Summer X Games and Winter X Games at 1:00 or 1:30 a.m. The program otherwise does not appear between X Games....
(2005–present)
See also
- ESPNewsESPNEWSESPNEWS , launched on November 1, 1996, is a 24-hour-a-day sports news television channel...
(a 24-hour sports news network from ESPN) - ESPN3 (an interactive home for sports fans)
- SportsCenter AsiaSportsCenter AsiaSportsCenter Asia is a sports news television show similar in format to the U.S. version of the same name.- About SportsCenter Asia :...
(the Asian version of SportsCenter) - SportsCentreSportsCentreSportsCentre is a sports news program airing on the Canadian network TSN. As TSN's flagship program, it airs several times daily, and beginning in the 2008 season it also began to be aired on sister network CTV as its post-game program for early NFL games....
(the Canadian version of SportsCenter) - :pt:SportsCenter Brasil (the Brazilian version of SportsCenter).It has recently completed 3000 editions.
External links
- Official site
- Official SportsCenter TV show page
- Official ESPN site
- Sportscenter in Brazil
- SportsCenter Altar—a comprehensive fan site