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| SportsCenter | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Created by | Chet Simmons |
| Presented by | For current anchors and analysts,see section below (for past on-air staff, seeSportsCenter anchors and reporters) |
| Theme music composer | Vangelis (1979–1985) John Colby (1989–2007) Annie Roboff (2007–present) Timbaland (2015–2020) Trouble Funk (2020–present) |
| Opening theme | "Pulstar" (1979–1990) "SportsCenter Theme" (1990–present) |
| Ending theme | Same as opening |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 43 |
| No. of episodes | Over 60,000 |
| Production | |
| Production locations | Bristol, Connecticut(daytime and evening editions) Washington, D.C.(Scott Van Pelt edition) Los Angeles(1:00 a.m. ET edition) (2009–2025) |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 30–90 minutes (depending on content) |
| Production company | ESPN |
| Original release | |
| Network | ESPN (1979–present) ESPN2 (2009–present) ESPNews (2010–present) ABC (2020–present)[1] |
| Release | September 7, 1979 (1979-09-07) – present |
SportsCenter (SC) is anAmerican television sports news broadcasting show broadcast byESPN. Originally anchored byChris Berman,George Grande, Greg Gumbel,Lee Leonard,Bob Ley,Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on September 7, 1979. Cristina Alexander,Victoria Arlen,Matt Barrie,Nicole Briscoe,John Buccigross,Linda Cohn,Kevin Connors, Shae Cornette,Elle Duncan,Michael Eaves,Jay Harris,Alyssa Lang,Steve Levy,David Lloyd,Zubin Mehenti,Kevin Negandhi,Stephen Nelson,Arda Ocal,Kelsey Riggs Cuff, Amina Smith, Ryan Smith,Hannah Storm,Gary Striewski,Scott Van Pelt and Christine Williamson currently serve as anchors. The show covers various sports teams and athletes from around the world and often shows highlights of sports from the day. Originally broadcast only once per day,SportsCenter now has up to twelve airings each day, excluding overnight repeats. The show often covers the major sports in the United States includingbasketball,hockey,football, andbaseball.SportsCenter is also known for its recaps after sports events and its in-depth analysis.
The show has broadcast more than 60,000 episodes, more than any other program on American television;SportsCenter is broadcast from ESPN's studio facilities inBristol, Connecticut,Washington, D.C., andLos Angeles.[2][3]
As of March 2023,SportsCenter normally runs live at the following times:
The program's runtime and starting time depend on the games' runtime. In case a game overlaps the starting time of anySportsCenter edition, it is occasionally moved to either ESPN2 or ESPNews (depending on whether one of the networks is carrying an event) until the event concludes. Conversely,SportsCenter may start early and run longer if the preceding event finishes early orbreaking sports news requires it.
Most editions of the show originate from a studio at ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. However, theScott Van Pelt edition ofSportsCenter has been produced out of a studio in Washington, D.C., inside theABC News bureau since 2020, in the former studio ofAround the Horn.[4][5] The 1 a.m. Eastern edition ofSportsCenter has been produced out of ESPN's Los Angeles Production Center atL.A. Live since 2009; that edition also is repeated during the overnight hours.[6]
ESPN also produces short 90-second capsules known asSportsCenter Right Now, which air at select points within game telecasts on the network and sister broadcast network ABC to provide updates of other ongoing and recently concluded sporting events.
In addition to providing game highlights and news from the day in sports outside of the scheduled slate of games (including team player and management transactions, injury reports and other news), the program also features live reports from sites of sports events scheduled to be held or already concluded, extensive analysis of completed and upcoming sports events from sport-specific analysts and special contributors, and feature segments providing interviews with players, coaches, and franchise management in the headlines. In addition to airing simulcasts or network-exclusive editions on sister networksESPN2 andESPNews, the program also produces short in-game updates during sports events aired onABC and until 2017, an interstitial play countdown segment for fellow networkDisney XD.
Some sports leagues and organizations, including theNational Basketball Association (NBA),National Hockey League (NHL), and college athletic conferences that are members of theNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and theNational Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), allow for brief highlights to be shown while a game is in progress. From 2006 to 2013,Major League Baseball only allowed ongoing game highlights to air duringSportsCenter within theBaseball Tonight Extra segments in the broadcast. TheNational Football League (NFL) does not permit the use of highlights for games that are ongoing at all, outside of those featured within its own live game broadcasts on the league's broadcast partners.
ESPN is traditionally unable to air highlights ofOlympic events until after they have aired ontape-delay onNBC (which currently holds the American rights to the Olympic Games through 2032) or its co-owned sister cable networks. ESPN began showing more Olympics highlights on-air and online beginning with the2006 Winter Olympics, with the network obtaining these extended rights from NBC as part of the 2006 deal that saw ABC releaseAl Michaels from his contract, in order to joinJohn Madden and key production personnel for the newNBC Sunday Night Football (this same deal also reverted rights to the Walt Disney-producedOswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons fromUniversal Pictures, which originally distributed the shorts).[7][8]
In addition, there are many anecdotal reports of various television networks (such asCBS Sports,NBC Sports, andBeIN Sports) that will not release highlights of certain sporting events to ESPN, unless the originating U.S. broadcaster's name is displayed on-screen for the entire length of the highlight (for example, "Courtesy NBC Sports").
Starting in 2007 and until its final season of broadcasting in 2014, ESPN stopped displaying the actual name of theNASCARNationwide Series orSprint Cup Series race during highlights of such events (for example, the "Allstate 400 at the Brickyard" was referred to as the "Brickyard 400 pres. byGolden Corral"), unless the title sponsor of the race is paid for to the network; a similar stipulation also applied to the network'sIndyCar Series coverage until 2018.
SportsCenter was conceived in 1979 and created by ESPN executivesChet Simmons and Scotty Connal.[9] The program was originally anchored byChris Berman,George Grande,Greg Gumbel,Lee Leonard,Bob Ley,Sal Marchiano andTom Mees.
Grande introduced the country to ESPN when he co-anchored the premiere episode ofSportsCenter on September 7, 1979, with Leonard, a longtimeNew York City sports broadcaster. According toEntertainment Weekly, Leonard said in the opening of the show: "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."[10] Grande spent ten more years with ESPN andSportsCenter until he left the network in 1989.
Chris Berman joined ESPN one month after its launch and became a fixture on the program until the early 1990s, when his efforts became more focused onNational Football League andMajor League Baseball coverage. He does, however, still occasionally appear as a substitute anchor. Bob Ley, who also hostedOutside the Lines, regularly appeared on the Sunday morning edition ofSportsCenter until his retirement in 2019.
In 1988, the program's format was changed byexecutive producer Walsh from focusing on individual sports or leagues to a "newspaper-style" structure, prioritizing stories by importance rather than by sport.[11]
The program's title sequence during its early years included various kinds of sports balls flying outward, set to a rapid-fire electronic music version of "Pulstar" byVangelis. By 1989, the first of several theme songs to incorporate ESPN's trademark six-note fanfare went into use. The theme music was originally composed byJohn Colby, who served as ESPN'smusic director from 1984 to 1992, creating and producing music for various sporting events and programs seen on the network.[12] The current version of the theme was composed in 2006 by Annie Roboff, who also co-wroteFaith Hill's 1998 hit "This Kiss".[13]
In 1994, ESPN launched theThis Is SportsCenteradvertising campaign, a series of humorous,tongue-in-cheek spots featuring anchors and crew, based on the show's opening tagline. The ads ran from 1995 to 2024 when the campaign was replaced by "My Life, My Team."[14] The team ofDan Patrick andKeith Olbermann—who anchored the 11:00 p.m. (Eastern) edition of the program—achieved great popularity during the late 1980s and the 1990s, a period interrupted by Olbermann's brief move to spin-off channelESPN2 upon that network's launch in 1993. After Olbermann left ESPN in 1997,Kenny Mayne became Patrick's co-anchor on the late broadcast; when Patrick was moved to the 6:00 p.m. edition,Rich Eisen andStuart Scott became the show's primary anchor team.[citation needed]
In 2001,Toronto-basedBell Globemedia and ESPN (which received a minority stake) jointly acquiredThe Sports Network (TSN). As part of its shift to ESPN-influenced branding, thespecialty channel rebranded its existing sports news programSportsDesk and changed its name toSportsCentre, using the same introductions and theme music as the ESPN version, except with its title rendered usingCanadian spelling.[15]
On September 11, 2001, ESPN interrupted regular programming at 11:05 a.m. Eastern to cover the immediate aftermath of theterror attacks through asimulcast ofABC News coverage. ESPN consideredsuspending that night's editions ofSportsCenter, before deciding to air a half-hour edition in which they announced the cancellations of major upcoming sporting events.[16]
On June 7, 2004,SportsCenter began broadcasting inhigh definition. Along with the conversion, the program introduced a new set designed byWalt Disney Imagineering (situated in a studio located at ESPN's new "Digital Center"), and a new graphics package titled "Revolution" that was developed by Troika Design Group.[17] During that summer, ESPN celebrated its25th anniversary, by counting down the top 100 moments in sports over the previous 25 years. The countdown was seen on eachSportsCenter broadcast daily beginning on May 31, 2004; the countdown concluded with the #1 moment, theUnited States men's national ice hockey team'svictory over theUSSR during the1980 Winter Olympics, airing on September 7, 2004.
During the summer of 2005,SportsCenter premiered a segment called "50 States in 50 Days", where a differentSportsCenter anchor traveled to a different state each day to discover the sports, sports history, and athletes of the state.[18]
On April 4, 2006,SportsCenter began to show highlights ofMajor League Baseball games in progress at the program's airtime; the rights to broadcast these highlights while games were ongoing was previously given exclusivity to fellow ESPN program,Baseball Tonight; the in-progress highlights are shown as part of the "Baseball Tonight Extra" segment. Prior to that date, video footage from MLB games was not shown on anySportsCenter broadcasts until the games completed play.
On February 11, 2007, following theNBA game between theChicago Bulls and thePhoenix Suns,SportsCenter aired its 30,000th broadcast. The special milestone edition was anchored bySteve Levy and Stuart Scott; Bob Ley, Chris Berman and Dan Patrick made guest appearances to recap events as well as bloopers from the first 10,000 shows (all three men individually counted down each set of 10,000 clips).[19][20] ESPN also debuted theSportsCenter Minute, a one-minuteSportsCenter update that is streamed exclusively onESPN.com.
Four months later on May 6, another major change toSportsCenter was introduced on that night's 11:00 p.m. (Eastern) edition, with the debut of a "rundown" graphic that appears on the right-side third of the screen. This feature was originally only shown during rebroadcasts of the overnight edition on Monday through Saturday nights, and on the main Sunday night telecast;[21] on ESPNHD, the sidebar graphic filled the rightpillarbox where the ESPNHD logo would usually appear whenstandard definition footage was presented.
The 6:00 p.m. edition ofSportsCenter moved one hour earlier to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on May 28, 2007; at that time, the early-evening edition was, for the first time, expanded to three hours. During that broadcast, ESPN aired live coverage ofRoger Clemens's second start for theNew York Yankees'minor league affiliate inScranton, Pennsylvania. The 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time edition ofSportsCenter on August 7, 2007, which was anchored byJohn Buccigross andCindy Brunson, showed live coverage ofBarry Bonds's 756th career home run, which broke the old MLB record set byHank Aaron (ESPN was carrying the game live on ESPN2). In August 2008, the formerWWE employeeJonathan Coachman joined ESPN to anchor the show.
On August 11, 2008, during the opening week of the2008 Beijing Olympic Games,SportsCenter began airing live from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The original plan was to start the live block three hours earlier at 6:00 a.m. Eastern; however, the network decided to scale back the length of the daytime broadcast before the expansion occurred.[22]
That same year,Hannah Storm (formerNBC Sports reporter and anchor ofCBS'sThe Early Show) joined ESPN to anchor the 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. block of the program.[23] The new format included two teams of two anchors in three-hour shifts:
In addition,Sage Steele would provide updates every 30 minutes from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.[24] The changes also included a new website for the program – SportsCenter.com, which launched on August 11, 2008 – to promote more interaction with viewers.[22] To promote these changes, ESPN held an employee casting call to see who would be featured in almost 25 live and unscripted commercials per day. Steve Braband, an International Programmer for the network, won, and was featured in ads shown about every half-hour (excluding from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time) on ESPN. Additionally, the network launched the website, steveislive.com, featuring Braband's daily appearance schedule, blog, and video clips of past appearances and audition footage.
Upon that network's launch on February 13, 2009,SportsCenter began producing a countdown segment, theSportsCenter High-5, for sister channelDisney XD (which is owned by ESPN majority ownerThe Walt Disney Company).[25][26]
On April 6, 2009 (starting with the 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time edition, which was anchored by Hannah Storm and Sage Steele),SportsCenter debuted a new graphics package that saw the "rundown" graphic – shown during the daytime editions – being shifted to the left side of the screen. On that same date,SportsCenter began producing its 1:00 a.m. Eastern Time edition ofSportsCenter live from ESPN's production facilities in the newly constructedL.A. Live complex (just across from theStaples Center) in Los Angeles. The set is virtually identical to the setup at the main facilities in Bristol, and the late-night West Coast broadcast would be produced as simply another edition of the program.Neil Everett andStan Verrett were appointed as the primary anchors for the Los Angeles-based editions ofSportsCenter. A newBottomLine ticker was also unveiled that day on four of the five ESPN networks (ESPN,ESPN2,ESPN Classic andESPNU); the redesigned ticker was quickly dropped, reverting to the old BottomLine design – which had been in use since April 2003 – due to an equipment failure (however, this ticker was operational for the2009 NFL draft and the2009 NBA draft). After technical issues with the revamped BottomLine were fixed, the new BottomLine was reinstated on July 8.
The2009 U.S. Open Golf Championship, which was repeatedly delayed due to weather, aired on bothNBC and ESPN. Portions of ESPN's broadcast, including the early parts of the Monday final round, were presented under the "SportsCenter at the U.S. Open" banner – using a similar branding as the segments-within-the-show focusing on nightly highlights and analysis of a particular event originating from the event locations (such as "SportsCenter at theSuper Bowl" and "SportsCenter at theWorld Series"). In August 2009, Robert Flores – co-anchor of the program's 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. block – was replaced on the early-afternoon broadcasts with John Buccigross.
On August 30, 2010, ESPN expandedSportsCenter toESPNews, airing an additional seven hours of the program in separate blocks from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time, canceling the channel's self-named rolling coverage.[1][27] By late 2010, the "rundown" graphic was expanded to all editions ofSportsCenter. On April 22, 2011, Josh Elliott – original and main co-anchor of the 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time block ofSportsCenter – left ESPN to become news anchor for ABC'sGood Morning America and was replaced on the late morning block of the program by Kevin Negandhi.
By mid-2011, shortly after ESPN and ESPN2 both converted to a16:9letterbox format (in compliance with the#10 AFD code) on their primary standard definition feeds,SportsCenter began showing all high-definition and standard-definition footage in the appropriate aspect ratio on the SD feed (with stylized pillarboxes adorned with the ESPN logo used on footage presented in standard definition). That same year on October, the former WWE employeeTodd Grisham joined ESPN to anchor the show. The move required the letterboxed image to be shrunk in order to be displayed in that manner, with the "rundown" graphic continuing to be placed on the left side of the screen. In August 2011,John Anderson – who previously served as the 11:00 p.m. (Eastern) anchor – was moved to the early-evening 6:00 p.m. broadcast, replacingBrian Kenny (who departed ESPN to become a program host for theMLB Network). ESPN launched a completely redesigned SportsCenter.com website on October 16, 2011.
On August 25, 2012, the BottomLine was used to acknowledge the death of astronautNeil Armstrong, thefirst man to walk on the Moon. It was reportedly only the fifth of six times that an outside news event not involving an athlete was reported on the ticker, alongside the news of the September 11 attacks, the death of civil rights pioneerRosa Parks in 2005, the election ofBarack Obama asPresident of the United States in2008, theKilling of Osama bin Laden, and the later death of formerSouth African presidentNelson Mandela on December 5, 2013.[citation needed]
On December 3, 2012,Lindsay Czarniak became the main co-anchor of the 6:00 p.m. edition ofSportsCenter. On February 8 and 9, 2013, the 11:00 p.m. editions ofSportsCenter on both nights were broadcast from Los Angeles, due to a massive snowstorm in theNortheastern United States that prevented some staff from conducting the program out of ESPN's Bristol headquarters. Stan Verrett anchored both editions from the network's Los Angeles studios.
In late March 2013, David Lloyd and Sage Steele, both of whom were previously co-anchored the weekend morning editions – moved to the weekday early-afternoon block (from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Eastern). The current daytime format, which was implemented that month, now features three teams of two anchors in two-hour shifts. On June 21, 2013, a largeLED high definition monitor placed behind the main anchor desk was added to the mainSportsCenter set in the network's Bristol facility.
In February 2014, production of the weeknight 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) editions ofSportsCenter was temporarily relocated back to Bristol, due to renovations being made at the network'sSportsCenter studio in Los Angeles. In addition, Neil Everett and Stan Verrett – both of whom had anchoredSportsCenter from Los Angeles since 2009 – were moved back to the network's headquarters, before both hosts and the program's production returned to the then-newly renovated Los Angeles studio on June 23, 2014.
On June 22, 2014,SportsCenter began broadcasting from Studio X of ESPN's new Digital Center 2 facility, which concurrently resulted in a major overhaul to the program's production and on-air appearance. The new studio incorporates over 114 displays – including two touchscreens, large vertical screens, and a "multidimensional" video wall consisting of 56 monitors of varying sizes and positions that can be used to create pseudo-3D effects. The monitor displays can be used to show video content (such as highlights) and other relevant imagery (such as statistics), emphasizing the ability for anchors to present content on-set through means other than just through voiceovers. A new graphics package was also introduced, emphasizing a bolder, yet more simplified look – in both their appearance and the level of content. To coincide with the redesign ofSportsCenter, a revised variant of ESPN's BottomLine ticker was introduced to complement the new graphical design, using a dark grey color scheme. A downscaled replica of DC2's set was constructed for broadcasts originating from ESPN's Los Angeles studio.[28][29][30][31]
On February 2 and 3, 2015, Lindsay Czarniak anchored the 6:00 p.m. (Eastern) edition ofSportsCenter from ESPN's Los Angeles facilities, due to a major snowstorm that hit the Northeastern United States the previous weekend, which also affected ESPN's main facilities in Bristol. The previous week from January 26 to 30, Czarniak had co-anchored the 6:00 p.m. edition alongside John Anderson from the parking lot of theScottsdale Fashion Square inScottsdale, Arizona as part of the program's coverage ofSuper Bowl XLIX. After that week, Anderson was moved back to the 11:00 p.m. broadcast, making Czarniak the solo anchor of the 6:00 p.m. editions on weeknights starting on February 2.
On September 7, 2015, Scott Van Pelt became the solo anchor of a revised 12:00 a.m. (Eastern) edition of the program, which is more freeform than otherSportsCenter editions and promoted asSportsCenter at Night, or SC@Night for short. In addition to featuring highlights and discussion panels, it features Van Pelt's analysis of sports events in a style similar to that conducted on his former radio talk showSVP and Russillo, during the replacement ofDanny Kanell as the new co-host ofRussillo Show alongsideRyen Russillo,[32] and utilizes a modified version of the show's theme (composed byTimbaland), as well as a different lighting and graphics set.[33]
In October 2015,Ronda Rousey became the first female athlete to guest host on the show.[34]
On February 8, 2016,SportsCenter moved its start time from 9:00 to 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time, with the launch of a new three hour morning block from 7:00 to 10:00 a.m., titledSportsCenter:AM, also brandedSC:AM.[35] Maintaining a faster-paced format, the program focuses on highlights from the previous night in the first hour, the top plays and moments of the previous night's sporting events in the second hour, and the upcoming day in sports in the third hour.SportsCenter:AM also shares resources withGood Morning America and ESPN2/ESPN Radio'sMike & Mike.[36][37]
On October 11, 2016, ESPN namedHis & Hers co-hostsJemele Hill andMichael Smith as co-anchors of the 6:00 p.m. ET edition ofSportsCenter, effective February 6, 2017 (the day afterSuper Bowl LI). They replaced Lindsay Czarniak, who had been anchoring the 6:00 p.m. ET edition of the show since December 3, 2012.
On November 13, 2015, ESPN interrupted regular programming around 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time, to cover the immediate aftermath of theterror attacks onStade de France and downtownParis as well as the hostage situation in theBataclan theatre, where a concert by American rock bandEagles of Death Metal was interrupted by terrorists who killed 89 people.ESPN FC correspondent Jonathan Johnson, as well as thenFrench presidentFrançois Hollande, were attending the game in theStade de France, around which the three explosions occurred. While Hollande was evacuated from the stadium at half-time, Johnson remained in the stadium, and after the game he described to the viewers the panic of the fans who attended the game and then rushed the field, after being noticed by the Stade de France'sPA announcer. After the hostage crisis ended, a special edition of the program was aired, featuring analysis and reports on the impact that the Paris attacks had on the sports world andsocial media reactions of sportspeople to the attacks, announcing the postponements of some major European sporting events that had been announced up to that weekend.
On January 3, 2017, the 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. ET editions ofSportsCenter moved from ESPN to ESPN2, effectively switching channels with the two-hour debate programFirst Take, which moved from ESPN2 to ESPN.
On February 6, 2017, the newly revamped 6:00 p.m. ET ofSportsCenter, known asSC6with Michael/Jemele (pronouncedSportsCenter at 6), debuted with Michael Smith and Jemele Hill as co-anchors. This new format featured some elements taken from Smith and Hill's former show,His & Hers and, likeSportsCenter with SVP, was more freeform than other editions ofSportsCenter. In addition,SC6 focused on the night ahead in sports, as well as breaking sports news as warranted.
On April 26, 2017,SportsCenter anchorsJay Crawford, Chris Hassel,Jade McCarthy,Sara Walsh andJaymee Sire (who had co-anchoredSportsCenter:AM since its debut on February 8, 2016) were among the 100 staffers who were let go by ESPN.
Several notable changes were implemented forSportsCenter beginning on August 28, 2017.Sage Steele andRandy Scott replaced Sire (who was laid off four months earlier) andKevin Negandhi as co-anchors for the weekday editions ofSportsCenter:AM joiningJay Harris, whileMatt Barrie andElle Duncan co-anchor the weekend editions ofSportsCenter:AM alongside Negandhi (who has since left that show to co-anchor the weeknight 6:00 p.m. ET editions ofSportsCenter with Steele). In another notable change, the "rundown" graphic has been permanently removed after a decade and (with the exception of the midnight ET edition with Scott Van Pelt) it has now been replaced by a bug on the lower-left portion of the 16:9 screen. The bug now identifies specific editions ofSportsCenter (such asSC:AM,SC@Night and so on).
ESPN debuted a brand new advertising campaign forSportsCenter which was created byDroga5 in late 2017.[38] It was originally expected to replace the long-runningThis Is SportsCenter advertising campaign as it would be discontinued. As of 2020, the latter advertising campaign (This is SportsCenter) is still being shown.[needs update]
On November 29, 2017, within an announcement of 150 behind-the-scenes staff members being laid off, ESPN announced the end of the primetimeSportsCenter editions airing on ESPNews as of November 30 (breaking sports news coverage will be maintained where needed).[39][40]
Following Jemele Hill's departure fromSportsCenter forThe Undefeated after the finalSC6 show on February 2, 2018, Michael Smith became the solo anchor of the 6:00 p.m. ET edition ofSportsCenter, which itself reverted to that title on February 5; Smith himself departed fromSportsCenter on March 9. As of March 1, 2021, the weeknight 6:00 p.m. ET editions ofSportsCenter are now co-anchored by Kevin Neghandi and Elle Duncan, the latter of whom replaced Sage Steele (who in turn, moved to the noon ET edition).
With the debut ofGet Up! on ESPN on April 2, 2018,SportsCenter:AM moved toESPN2 (the first hour of the latter show has since moved back to ESPN), whileGolic and Wingo moved toESPNews. Consequently, the 10:00 a.m. ET edition ofSportsCenter on ESPN2 was eliminated.
On September 6, 2019, in honor of the 40th anniversary of ESPN's launch, Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick made a surprise on-air reunion as guest hosts for the late-night edition, which featured tributes to their time at the network.[41]
On March 11, 2020, the NBA announced that it would suspend the2019–20 NBA season indefinitely following the conclusion of that night's games as a result ofRudy Gobert testing positive forCOVID-19 before a game between theUtah Jazz and theOklahoma City Thunder atChesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, which caused the game to be initially postponed. The following day, all of the other major sports leagues followed suit in suspending their seasons for an indefinite period in order to combat theCOVID-19 pandemic, and several majorcollege basketball tournaments were also canceled after plans to initially play the gameswithout an audience fell through. After the cancellations were announced, ESPN aired a special edition of the program chronicling the effects of the pandemic and its impact on sporting events and the athletes' reactions to the pandemic via social media.[citation needed]
As a result of the pandemic, ESPN significantly reduced the production ofSportsCenter, which at the time aired live three times each weekday (noon, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m., all times Eastern) and twice each on Saturday and Sunday.
Beginning with the weekend of September 12, 2020, and also, the week of September 14, 2020,SportsCenter:AM returned to its regularly scheduled daily 7:00 a.m. ET time slot. On weekdays, the first hour of the show is now aired on ESPN from 7–8 a.m. ET, with the remaining two hours on ESPN2 from 8–10 a.m. ET. On weekends, ESPN airs a two-hour block of the show from 7–9 a.m. ET.
On August 29, 2022,SportsCenter debuted a newly revamped Studio X, complete with a larger LED video wall, new LED monitors and a bigger news desk to accommodate in-studio guests. Studio X underwent a second revamp the following summer and on September 7, 2023 (coincidentally the 44th anniversary of ESPN's launch),SportsCenter returned to the main news desk in the same studio, starting with that day's inaugural 2pm ET edition (which replaced the noon ET edition; that time slot has since been filled byThe Pat McAfee Show).
In February 2025, ESPN announced a new version of SportsCenter,SC+, which will air exclusively onDisney+.[42]
On May 19, 2025SportsCenter aired its final show from Los Angeles, anchored by Linda Cohn and Stan Verrett. Cohn's predecessor, Neil Everett, made a special appearance on the final Los Angeles edition, which ended production after 16 years.
"SportsCenter: 50 States in 50 Days" returned for its 20th anniversary on June 27, 2025.
There has not been any changes to the air time of the show since March 2023.
SportsCenter Australia is shown onESPN Australia.
On March 1, 2010, ESPN launched a special domestic edition ofSportsCenter on its European channelESPN America. The half-hour program, anchored byMichael Kim,[43] aired Monday through Fridays at 6:00 a.m.Western European Time (7:00 a.m.Central European Time), with a late-night broadcast at 10:30 p.m. WET/11:30 p.m. CET.
In April 2012, the ESPN America edition of the program was expanded to weekends, and moved to 8:00 a.m. WET (9:00 a.m. CET). At that time, a localized version of the program that was previously produced was discontinued and was replaced with an edited version of the 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time telecast from Los Angeles, recut to fit a 45-minute time block through the removal of commercial breaks and stories on European sports (such as soccer); the program began to be repeated at 8.45 a.m., 4:00 p.m. and 4.45 p.m. (WET).
ESPN Radio broadcastsESPN Radio SportsCenter, which features scores, stats and news headlines, every half an hour throughout all talk programming and every 20 minutes throughout MLB and NFL broadcasts. The updates can be accessed on-demand using the ESPN website/mobile app. The current half hour's file is usually available within10+1⁄2 minutes after its first broadcast.
SportsCenter AM was a radio show onESPN Radio hosted byESPN Radio SportsCenter anchorJay Reynolds. The show has been replaced byFirst and Last in July 2017.[44]SportsCenter AM featured scores from all major sporting events including theNFL,NBA,NHL, andMLB. The show usually played audio highlights for last minute shots, game winning homers, and other exciting events from the previous day's sporting events.
SportsCenter AM lasted one hour from 4:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m.ET, re-airing at 5:00 am ET. The show led intoMike and Mike in the Morning. It ran much like theSportsCenter program onESPN television. Reynolds recapped scores and played audio highlights and earlier interviews from a variety of sports. No live interviews or call-ins took place during the hour.Bob Picozzi did oneSportsCenter update at 4:30 a.m. ASportsCenterExpress, hosted byDoug Brown, took place where the normalSportsCenter breaks would be, at 4:20 and 4:40 a.m.
SportsCentre is the daily sports news television program onTSN, the Canadian sports network in which ESPN is a minority owner. The title is rendered inCanadian spelling. It uses the similar look and format to ESPN'sSportsCenter, the current ESPNSportsCenter theme, as well as some of the same features and segments.
SportsCenter Philippines is a local version ofSportsCenter, as a result of the partnership between ESPN and Sports5 (nowOne Sports), a division of Philippine-based media companyTV5 Network. It is launched on December 17, 2017, coinciding the2017–18 season of thePhilippine Basketball Association.SportsCenter Right Now, a bulletin version of the program, was launched earlier on November 24, during the Group B rounds of the2019 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers.
SportsCenter on Snapchat is a version ofSportsCenter distributed exclusively onSnapchat, with a more relaxed take with host commentary. It debuted November 13, 2017. New episodes are released every day at 5:00 a.m. and previously also on weekdays at 5:00 p.m., both times ET. Hosts of past and present includeElle Duncan, Janelle Marie Rodriguez,Cassidy Hubbarth, formerly Jason Fitz, Cy Amundson,Gary Striewski, formerlyAndrew Hawkins, formerly Treavor Scales, and formerlyMike Golic Jr.[45]Katie Nolan was a host until the start of her showAlways Late with Katie Nolan.[46] In March 2018, it was nominated for aSports Emmy Award for Outstanding Social TV Experience and gets 2 million unique visitors each day.[47][48]
SportsCenter has a Spanish language version in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and Mexico, which is calledSportsCenter en Español and is broadcast nightly onESPN Deportes,ESPN Latin America andStar+.[49] Antonio Valle, Fernando Tirado, Jorge Eduardo Sánchez, José Briseño, José Antonio "Toño" Rodríguez, Julia Headley, Kary Correaand Miguel Ángel Briseño are some of the show's reporters.
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