Up Close is an Americansportsinterview show that aired onESPN+ in 2021 and had aired onESPN from 1981–2001.
The program debuted in1981 onUSA Network and was created by the advertising agencyFoote, Cone and Belding to advertise one of its clients,Mazda cars.Mazda SportsLook moved to ESPN in1982 and was subsequently rechristenedUp Close.
Once it arrived at ESPN,SportsLook was slotted beforeSportsCenter. The show aired at 6 p.m.Eastern time, followed bySportsCenter at 6:30. The show remained in that slot until September1999, whenSportsCenter was expanded to an hour andUp Close, as it was then renamed, moved to 5:30 p.m.
The original host ofUp Close wasRoy Firestone, who served as host for 13 years. During this time, both Firestone and the show won manyCableACE Awards, then the gold standard for cable television programming. When Firestone left in1994,Chris Myers became the new host; he stayed there until1998 and enjoyed the highest ratings in the history of the program.Gary Miller was the show's host whenUp Close signed off in2001.Sage Steele became the host when the show was brought back in2021.
Roy Firestone was the subject of extensive criticism regarding what has been characterized as a "softball" and "chummy" 1992 ESPN interview withO. J. Simpson (or, as he called Simpson in the interview, "Juice") during which he asserted that Simpson's January 1989 arrest and subsequent conviction for beating his wife, Nicole, unfairly distorted Simpson's reputation to the point that Simpson was portrayed by the press as "the bad guy" merely for having "a little bit too much to drink." He further expressed his annoyance with the press' reports of Simpson's arrest and conviction for beating Nicole because the press, in reporting the facts, had the temerity to portray Simpson as "a wife beater" (the offense for which he was convicted). He then gave Simpson a free pass to downplay the criminal beating of Nicole and characterize it as an argument that got a "little loud," asserting that he and Nicole were "both guilty." These assertions, which were contrary to the public record, were not only unchallenged by Firestone, but were actively encouraged and endorsed by him. This criticism was renewed upon the release of the documentaryOJ: Made In America which included an excerpt from the interview in which Firestone expresses these sentiments and where the "chumminess" is apparent.[1] Firestone has recently expressed remorse for how he handled the interview, stating, "The Simpson interview is one of the most tragic examples of how the media (including me) and the public trusted and accommodated their heroes, believing their mythology and perpetuating their deification."[2]
Chris Myers would later also interview O. J. Simpson live in November1995; this was Simpson's first full-length interview since he was acquitted in the "trial of the century" a month earlier.
Some interviews, notably those withcollege basketballcoachesJim Valvano andBob Knight, are still occasionally shown onESPN Classic under the nameUp Close Classics.
In1999,Up Close broadcasts were moved from studios inLos Angeles to theESPN Zone inAnaheim, onDisneyland property.
Decliningratings and the rise of a confrontational style of talk eventually led to the show's cancellation, which occurred on Friday, October 19, 2001. Three days later,Up Close was replaced withUnscripted with Chris Connelly, which updated theUp Close format to be more contemporary. The new program lasted less than a year.
On May 27, 2021,SportsCenter anchorSage Steele revealed during the show's noon ET episode that she would host a reboot ofUp Close, exclusively on the digital subscription serviceESPN+.[3][4] The first episode of the reimagined show was made available for streaming to ESPN+ subscribers on June 30, 2021.[5]