The Blitz, which debuted on the first day of the 2005 NFL season

2005 NFL season

The 2005 NFL season was the 86th regular season of the National Football League.With the New England Patriots as the defending league champions, regular season play was held from September 8, 2005 to January 1, 2006...

 (September 11, 2005), airs on ESPNEWS

ESPNEWS

ESPNEWS , launched on November 1, 1996, is a 24-hour-a-day sports news television channel...

, mainly during the NFL season on Sundays, from 1:00pm ET

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...

 to 10:00pm ET. This program is currently on hiatus

Hiatus (television)

In television scheduling, a hiatus refers to a break of at least several weeks in the normal schedule of a broadcast programming. It can occur during a season of a television program, or can be between television seasons .- Planned hiatus :Many times television stations will implement a hiatus...

.

During NFL season

When The Blitz debuted in 2005, it originally consisted of scores and highlights of NFL games around the country, along with analysis from Qadry Ismail

Qadry Ismail

Qadry "The Missile" Ismail is a former National Football League wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay Packers, Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints, Baltimore Ravens, and the Indianapolis Colts in a 10 year career that lasted from 1993 to 2002...

, Mike Ditka

Mike Ditka

Michael Keller Ditka, Jr. is a former American football NFL player, television commentator, and coach. Ditka coached the Chicago Bears for 11 years and New Orleans Saints for three years. Ditka and Tom Flores are the only two people to win Super Bowls as a player, an assistant coach, and a head...

, and Sean Salisbury

Sean Salisbury

Richard Sean Salisbury is an American football analyst, former NFL and CFL quarterback, and actor.-Early life:Salisbury attended Orange Glen High School in Escondido, California...

. The Blitz also had some non-football highlights (such as college basketball, the NBA, and the like) mixed in. The program went off the air the week after the Super Bowl XL

Super Bowl XL

Super Bowl XL was an American football game pitting the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers against the National Football Conference champion Seattle Seahawks to decide the National Football League champion for the 2005 season...

 in 2006, and returned on September 10 of that same year. The Blitz would eventually replace the Sunday afternoon and evening editions of "ESPNEWS" (which previously aired on Sundays) from that point until February 3, 2008. The Blitz reverted to this format used during the NFL season on September 9, 2007.

The Blitz went off the air for the season on February 3, 2008.

During all other times

On February 18, 2007, The Blitz debuted an alternate program logo, along with a second format that was used all other times (similar to the ones used on the other ESPNEWS programs, such as ESPNEWS Gametime

ESPNEWS Gametime

ESPNews Gametime is a news/analysis and up to the minute highlight show that airs on ESPNews. Debuting on September 5, 2006, the program aired Monday-Sunday from 8pm ET-12am ET and Friday from 9pm ET-12am ET. On Fridays, it was pushed back one hour to make room for Football Friday...

). And with that, it also replaced programming previously aired from 1:00pm to 10:00pm ET (ESPNEWS Day and ESPNEWS Early Evening). This format has been discontinued as of September 2, 2007 as the network has reverted back to its original Sunday programming lineup (ESPNEWS Day and ESPNEWS Early Evening) on February 10, 2008.

The Blitz anchor roster

Some of the anchors who appeared on The Blitz included:

• Linda Cohn
  Linda Cohn
  Linda Cohn is an American sportscaster. She regularly anchors ESPN's SportsCenter.-Early life and education:As a teenager, Cohn, a New Yorker, demonstrated talent at ice hockey, making her high school's boys team...
  
  
• Robert Flores
  Robert Flores
  Robert Flores is a sports journalist for ESPN. Joining the network in 2005, Flores is currently an anchor for ESPNEWS and for ESPN's SportsCenter . Robert provides a Taco Bell Studio Update during each game of ABC College Football, and Saturday Night Football. He also serves as a substitute...
  
  
• Mike Hill
  Mike Hill (sportscaster)
  Mike Hill is a sportscaster who has been with ESPN since 2004. During his time at ESPN he has hosted a variety of the network's shows including SportsCenter, ESPN First Take, NFL Live, Baseball Tonight, Highlight Express, and various remote projects including Cam Newton's 2011 Pro Day at...
  
  
• Dari Nowkhah
  Dari Nowkhah
  Dari Nowkhah is a current ESPN SportsCenter anchor. He also hosts extensive college football and college basketball programming on the ESPN Networks. On July 27, 2011, Nowkhah will become the lead anchor for ESPNU, replacing Lowell Galindo who is headed to the Longhorn Network. Since January...
  
  
• Bill Pidto
  Bill Pidto
  Bill Pidto was a former radio personality on Mad Dog Radio on the show The B-Team and is currently an anchor for MSG Network's coverage of New York Rangers road games and select New York Knicks games. He was formerly a journalist for ESPN from 1993 to 2008. He was often seen as one of the anchors...
  
  
• 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:...
  
  
• J.W. Stewart