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SportsCenter

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This article is about the American ESPN show. For the Canadian TSN show, see SportsCentre.
SportsCenter
StarringVarious anchors (see below)
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes30,166 thru August 6, 2007
Production
Running time30 min., 60 min., 90 min., or 120 min.
Original release
NetworkESPN (1979-)
ReleaseSeptember 7, 1979 –
Present

SportsCenter is a sports news television show shown every day on ESPN since the network was founded on September 7, 1979. Originally a once a day show, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major sporting events. It shows highlights and top ten plays. As a result of the regular airing, it has been shown more times than any other show in American television, with over 30,000 unique episodes. It celebrated its 30,000th show on February 11, 2007.

Air times

SportsCenter normally airs at 1:00 a.m., 2:00 a.m., 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., 6:00 p.m., and 11:00 p.m. ET. The morning shows are generally re-airings of the previous night's 1:00 AM show, except on Saturdays and Sundays. On Saturday the 10:00 a.m. to noon is a new show. On Sunday the 9:00 a.m. and the 10:30 a.m. are new shows. The show is taped in ESPN's HDTV studio facilities in Bristol, Connecticut.

History

Early years

George Grande introduced the country to ESPN when he co-anchored the first ever SportsCenter on September 7, 1979. He was the lone host of the first show, which didn't show a single sports clip. He was joined soonafter by Lee Leonard, a longtime New York broadcaster. 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 it was on the air, and became a fixture at SportsCenter.

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.

1990s

In 1994, ESPN began the This is SportsCenter ad campaign to promote their show. [1]

On May 17, 1998, SportsCenter aired its 20,000th episode.

2001

After ESPN, Inc. acquired a share of Canadian sports network TSN, that network's sports news program, SportsDesk, was re-branded as SportsCentre (using Canadian spelling) in the summer of 2001.

On September 11, 2001, ESPN aired a special edition of SportsCenter, which was anchored by Trey Wingo and Bob Ley (see "The show that nearly wasn't" below).

2002

SportsCenter aired its 25,000th episode on May 25, 2002.

2004

The program began broadcasting in high definition on June 7, 2004, and on the same day began broadcasting the show from studios inside the network's brand-new Digital Center, debuting a new set designed by Walt Disney Imagineering and featuring a robust graphics package entitled "Revolution" designed by Troika Design Group.

During the summer of 2004, ESPN counted down the top 100 sports moments of the past 25 years. Hosted by David Overton Wilson III, ESPN25 consisted of 30-second commercials shown during the 6:00 p.m. ET SportsCenter each day from May 31, 2004 until the #1 moment, the U.S. Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Team's victory over the USSR during the 1980 Winter Olympics, was aired on Sepember 7, 2004.

2005

In July 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.[2]

2006

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 went final (as shown on the ticker at the bottom of the screen, known as the "BottomLine").

On October 11, 2006, SportsCenter began at 5:00 p.m. ET with its coverage of the plane crash in New York City, which killed New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor. The expanded editions of SportsCenter continued until midnight ET (when ESPN aired the usual "Trifecta"). A replay of the 11 p.m. ET SportsCenter, which was anchored by John Buccigross and Stan Verrett, aired at 1 a.m. ET.

On November 3, 2006, for the first time on any SportsCenter, the 6 p.m. ET edition was broadcast with a single advertiser. Nike, whose ads come from the Wieden & Kennedy agency in Portland, Oregon, that creates ESPN's ads, was that single advertiser. The idea, Nike spokesman Dean Stoyer said, is to exploit the "synergy" with ESPN airing Wednesday night's Washington Wizards-Cleveland Cavaliers NBA game starring top Nike pitchman LeBron James by having the entire show sponsored by The LeBrons, an ad set featuring James playing three different alter egos and himself. A public outcry followed, as viewers commonly called into question the already questionable journalistic integrity of the network when dealing with the biggest stars of professional sports.

Also on November 3, 2006, ESPNEWS started airing SportsCenter on nights ESPN broadcasts The NBA on ESPN doubleheader. This practice was discontinued in February 2007, when ESPN2 canceled Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith due to very low ratings.

2007

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 no-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.

Also on February 11, 2007, SportsCenter Minute, which is a web-streaming one-minute SportsCenter update seen exclusively on ESPN.com, was introduced.

On February 16, 2007, the 11 p.m. ET edition was again broadcast with a single advertiser. Sprint's Nextel brand, which sponsors NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series (formerly the Nextel Cup Series), was that single advertiser this time around. This was to promote the start of the 2007 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, featuring various Nextel commercials centering around NASCAR.

On March 12, 2007, a special 6 p.m. ET edition of SportsCenter, which aired for 2 hours, was entirely devoted to "America's Bracket." That 2-hour broadcast, which was anchored by Jay Harris and Linda Cohn, aired 24 hours after the men's NCAA Basketball Tournament brackets were revealed.

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 the overnight show Monday through Saturday and on the main Sunday night program.

The 6 p.m. ET edition of SportsCenter moved up to 5 p.m. ET on May 28, 2007, and -- for the first time ever -- it was extended to three hours. The reason for the early start time for that particular edition, and for it to be extended to three hours, was that ESPN aired live coverage of Roger Clemens' second start for the New York Yankees' minor league club in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

On June 26, 2007, the 11 p.m. ET edition of SportsCenter was broadcast with a single advertiser once more. The single advertiser for that particular edition was Live Free or Die Hard, a 2007 film starring Bruce Willis, who appeared in ESPN promos that tied in with the movie. Live Free or Die Hard is released by 20th Century Fox.

The 11pm ET edition of SportsCenter on August 7, 2007, which was anchored by John Buccigross and Cindy Brunson, showed live coverage of Barry Bonds' 756th career home run, which broke the old MLB record set by Hank Aaron, who had 755 career home runs. The game in which Bonds hit his 756th career home run, aired on sister channel ESPN2. The San Francisco Giants (the team in which Bonds played for 15 seasons, from 1993 to 2007) lost that game to the Washington Nationals, 8-6.

On December 29, 2007, the 11pm ET edition of SportsCenter, which aired on ESPNEWS, covered the New England Patriots' perfect regular season. The Patriots defeated the New York Giants, 38-35 to become the first team in NFL history to win all 16 games since the league's introduction of the 16-game schedule in 1978. In addition, the Patriots became the fourth team in NFL history to complete an undefeated regular season. SportsCenter aired comprehensive coverage of the Patriots' perfect season on ESPNEWS until about 11:47pm ET, when sister channel ESPN (which was broadcasting the 2007 Alamo Bowl at the time of the Patriots' victory over the Giants that same night) picked up the story at that point.

September 11, 2001 and The show that nearly wasn't

On September 11, 2001, ESPN interrupted regular programming at 11:05 a.m. Eastern Time to cover the immediate aftermath of the attacks on America through a simulcast of ABC News. The network considered not airing SportsCenter that night, and debated the topic for about an hour. Finally, a half-hour version aired which announced the cancellations of major U.S. sporting events that had been announced up to that time.[3]

SportsCenter sets

Anchors and reporters

For the numerous different anchors and reporters that make up SportsCenter, see List of SportsCenter anchors and reporters.

Segments

For the numerous different segments that make up SportsCenter, see List of SportsCenter segments and specials.

ESPN Radio

ESPN Radio also has ESPN Radio SportsCenter with radio highlights airing three times an hour on the ESPN Radio network.

Conditions to showing highlights

Some sports leagues and organizations, including the NBA, 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 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.[4]

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, which can be perceived as a form of visual pollution. (In some cases, the same stipulation is made to competing programs like FSN Final Score, but not in all.)

Also, as of the 2007 NASCAR season, the names of NASCAR's Sprint Cup (formerly NEXTEL Cup) and Nationwide Series (formerly Busch Series) races are no longer used by SportsCenter anchors or shown in graphics unless the sponsor pays a promotional consideration fee to the network (for example, Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami), or a major race like the Daytona 500. In some cases, the actual race name is not used, but a presenting sponsor of the telecast is instead substituted (example: the 2007 Sharp Aquos 500 was re-dubbed "NEXTEL Cup Series at California presented by Principal Financial"). This is one of the stipulations in the contract that began in 2007 in which ESPN (and ABC) returned to cover NASCAR races after a seven-year absence.

Spin offs

  • BassCenter (2003–2006)
  • ScoreCenter on ESPN MobileTV (2007-present)
  • SportsCenterU (2006–present)
  • X Center (2005–present)

See also

References

  1. ^ This is SportsCenter
  2. ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/fiftyfifty/index 50 States in 50 Days]
  3. ^ Sports Illustrated, Sep. 24, 2001
  4. ^ Associated Press report, Jan. 18, 2006

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to SportsCenter.

Template:Sportscenter

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