Starting Aug. 11, SportsCenter will begin to air live on weekday mornings from 6am-3pm EST.
How can anybody be excited about this?
Honestly, when I first read this story, I began frowning like a 17-year old guy at a Backstreet Boys concert. I was so not excited.
Since 1996, SportsCenter has simply taped the previous night's show and re-aired it in the morning. I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of "if it's not broke, don't fix it." Does anybody else remember New Coke? Clear Pepsi? The synthetic basketball?
SportsCenter is considered the epitome of sports news on TV; however, not a large number of sports-related news takes place between midnight and 6am. Maybe a DUI or arrest, but sadly those have become so commonplace that they can be thrown into the SportsCenter update every twenty minutes without any real depth. There really will be nothing new for these anchors to talk about FOR NINE HOURS.
I'm sure there'll be more guests, a lot more analysts (please give Barry Melrose his own hour), and a large serving of highly-produced highlight reels, but one would be hard-pressed to find anything to talk about for nine hours, regardless of the topic.
I think the people that will be most upset by this is the crew of ESPN's First Take on ESPN2. This pretty much makes their show second-tier, as if it wasn't already.
It was also announced that along with the live show would be a new website, one that will allow for greater interaction between viewer and show. This is a novel ideal, but think about who is really going to be watching: stay-at-home dads and college kids. Since there are roughly only four stay-at-home dads in the US, we can safely assume that college kids will be the overwhelming majority of viewers, and even they will have to go to class eventually.
I applaud ESPN for making an effort and showing that they're still trying, but I believe this is merely another manifestation of ESPN's dangerously close flirtation with overkill. Even the most diehard of sports fan has a maximum capacity for highlights and Neil Everett before they get turned off.
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4 months ago
Thank you for writing an intelligent article about sports entertainment production. I have written a few articles on this subject as well. At the same time, I have to disagree with you. I am a big ESPN radio fan. The reason that it works is the interpretation and analysis that goes into more depth than one traditionally gets from television. ESPN is trying to integrate this same depth into Sportscenter now. I think this is a good thing.
from 4 months ago
And I agree with you, to a degree. I listen to ESPN Radio everyday. However, the point is reversed. They already have this in-depth analysis on the radio, on ESPNews, on First Take. Now they want to bring the same information to another channel. They're increasing the breadth of information and not the depth.
4 months ago
I completely agree with your article. A+ for ESPN on their ideas for new website for interaction with fans, good call was going to happen sooner or later. A "Oh no" for why in the world they think they need 9AM-3PM live. ESPNNEWS runs 24/7 and they can't even get enough stuff to happen for them to have their segments run on maximum 25 minute loop.
Dumb idea ESPN your downfall continues.
3 months ago
I'll tell you why I'm excited about the new Sportscenters... Hannah Storm
Now, here's a little insider info you may not have realized about ESPN Radio.
The bean-counters up at Bristol thought they needed to justify their existence by coming up with a new programming clock for how the shows would all run... and it sucks!
Previously, there were breaks at the top of the hour (from :55:20-3:00), about 16 after there was a break, and then about :36 there was a third break. This gave the shows good flow and time to discuss topics in length. The drawback (in my opinion) was the top of the hour break was almost 8 minutes long, with 1 minute of network commercials, 3 minutes of local, 10 second legal ID, 2 1/2 minute Sportcenter, and 30 second local).
Now with the new clock there's more breaks in the hour, resulting in some really short segments. One minute of network advertising time has been added, and on overnights the network sportscenter at :20 is 3 minutes sometimes.
To me it breaks up the flow of shows, and means less time for interviews and such.
The one benefit is the top of the hour break has been split up, and now is a 5-minute break about :50, then going in to the top of the hour it's just legal, 2:30 SC, and rejoin sweeper (10 seconds).
So I'm looking forward to seeing Hannah and Linda Cohn in the mornings!
from 3 months ago
Oops... On the old clock there were 3 1/2 minutes of local spots prior to the top of the hour... Gotta keep that timing right.
2 months ago
It's a better idea than showing old bowling on ESPN 2. It's not even celebrity bowling from the 70's.
Fill that time up with football espn-c!
about 1 month ago
I'm waiting to see how they use it. Not that much news will happen, but we'll be able to get injury updates and other player news right away in the morning. I have been disappointed with most of what ESPN shows during the day. I don't really enjoy watching Mike and Mike talk into microphones on my lunch break.
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