SportsCenter
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| SportsCenter | |
|---|---|
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| Format | Sports |
| Starring | Various anchors (see below) |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 30,166 thru August 6, 2007 |
| Production | |
| Running time | varies; usually 60 or 90 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ESPN (1979-) |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV), 720p (HDTV) |
| Original run | September 7, 1979 – Present |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
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 airing once per day, 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. Due to its durability, 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. The show is taped in ESPN's HDTV studio facilities in Bristol, Connecticut.
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[edit] Air times
SportsCenter normally airs on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., as well as at 6:00 p.m. (typically 90 minutes), 11:00 p.m., 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. (typically 60 minutes each), ET. The morning shows are generally re-airings of the previous night's 1:00 AM show., Saturday viewers see a new episode from 10:00 a.m. to noon, along with the evening airings as above. On Sundays, a half-hour episode airs at 9:00 a.m. and another edition of varying length airs at 10:30 a.m.; the 11:00 p.m. 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.
ESPN has announced that starting in August 2008, live episodes will be produced from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. weekday mornings, replacing repeats of the previous night's edition.
[edit] History
[edit] Standard definition era
George Grande introduced the country to ESPN when he co-anchored the first ever SportsCenter on September 7, 1979. His fellow 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 few minutes, hours, and days to follow may convince you that you've gone to sports heaven." (Entertainment Weekly, 8 September 2000, p. 94) 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 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 "da-da-dah, da-da-dah" fanfare was in use.
Throughout the 1990s, SportsCenter's set saw many changes (see below). In 1994, ESPN began the This is SportsCenter ad campaign to promote their show. [1]
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.
During the summer of 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).
[edit] 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.[2]
[edit] High definition era
High definition broadcasting started 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 that summer, ESPN celebrated their 25th anniverary, ESPN25, 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 U.S. Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Team's victory over the USSR during the 1980 Winter Olympics, was aired on September 7, 2004.
SportsCenter premiered a segment called "50 States in 50 Days", during the summer of 2005, where a different SportsCenter anchor traveled to a different state every day to discover the sports, sports history, and athletes of the state.[3]
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").
ESPNEWS started airing SportsCenter on nights ESPN broadcasts The NBA on ESPN doubleheader, on November 3, 2006. This practice was discontinued in February 2007, when ESPN2 canceled Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith due to very low ratings.
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. 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 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.
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.
[edit] Live broadcasts
On August 11, 2008, during the opening week of the Beijing Olympic Games, SportsCenter will begin airing live from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET. Former CBS Early Show anchor Hannah Storm is joining ESPN to host the 9am to noon block. The new format will include three teams of two anchors with one update anchor in three-hour shifts. The change will also include a new SportsCenter.com Web site to promote more interaction with viewers.[4] It will originate in the network's new Los Angeles studio across from the Staples Center.
[edit] SportsCenter sets
 1979–1982 George Grande (left) and Lee Leonard (right) |
 1982-early '80s George Grande (left) and Bob Ley (right) |
 early '80s-mid '80s From left to right: Sharon Smith, Chris Berman, Greg Gumbel and Bob Ley. This was the last with the network's original logo. |
 mid '80s-late '80s Chris Berman (left) and Bob Ley (right). The current ESPN logo was introduced at this point. |
 late '80s-May 1994 Bob Ley (left) and Dan Patrick (right) |
 May 1994-Aug. 17, 2000 Stuart Scott (left) and Rich Eisen (right) |
 Aug. 18, 2000–June 6, 2004 Trey Wingo (left) and Linda Cohn (right). The current SportsCenter logo debuted with this set. |
 June 7, 2004–present Rece Davis (left) and Linda Cohn (right). SportsCenter was first broadcast in HD on this set. |
[edit] Anchors and reporters
For the numerous different anchors and reporters that make up SportsCenter, see List of SportsCenter anchors and reporters.
[edit] Segments
For the numerous different segments that make up SportsCenter, see List of SportsCenter segments and specials.
[edit] ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio also has ESPN Radio SportsCenter with radio highlights airing three times an hour on the ESPN Radio network.
[edit] 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 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.[5]
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. (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.
[edit] Spin offs
- BassCenter (2003–2006)
- ScoreCenter on ESPN MobileTV (2007-present)
- SportsCenterU (2006–present)
- X Center (2005–present)
[edit] See also
- 50 States in 50 Days
- This is SportsCenter
- List of SportsCenter anchors and reporters
- List of SportsCenter segments and specials
- ESPNEWS (a 24-hour sports news network from ESPN)
- ESPN360 (an interactive home for sports fans)
- SportsCenter Asia (the Asian version of SportsCenter)
- SportsCentre (the Canadian version of SportsCenter)
[edit] References
- ^ This is SportsCenter
- ^ Sports Illustrated, Sep. 24, 2001
- ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/fiftyfifty/index 50 States in 50 Days]
- ^ "SportsCenter to air live in mornings starting Aug. 11; Storm joins ESPN", ESPN.com, 2008-05-13.
- ^ Associated Press report, Jan. 18, 2006
[edit] External links
- Official SportsCenter show page
- Official ESPN site
- Sportscenter in Brazil
- SportsCenter Altar — a comprehensive fan site
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