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''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an
American television Television is one of the Mass media in the United States, major mass media outlets in the United States. In 2011, 96.7% of households owned television sets; about 114,200,000 American households owned at least one television set each in August ...
sports news broadcasting show broadcast by
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George GrandeGreg 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 Scott Van Pelt (born July 9, 1966) is an American sportscaster and sports talk show host employed by ESPN. He is a long time anchor of key editions of '' SportsCenter'' on ESPN, served as the co-host of '' SVP & Russillo'' alongside Ryen Russi ...
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 U.S. including
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
, hockey,
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
, and
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
. ''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 in
Bristol, Connecticut Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, southwest-west of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. The city is also 120 miles southwest from Boston, and approximately 100 miles northeast of New York City. The ...
, Washington, D.C., and
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
.


Overview and format

As of May 2025 , ''SportsCenter'' normally runs live at the following times: * Weekdays: 7:00–8:00 a.m., 2:00–3:00 p.m., 5:00–5:30 p.m., 6:00–7:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.–1:00 a.m. ET. * Saturday: 7:00 a.m.–9:00 a.m., and 12:00 am.–2:00 a.m. ET. * Sunday: 7:00–9:00 a.m., and 11:00 p.m.–12:30 a.m. ET. The program's runtime and starting time depend on the games' runtime. In case a game overlaps the starting time of any ''SportsCenter'' 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 or breaking sports news requires it. Most editions of the show originate from a studio at ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. However, the
Scott Van Pelt Scott Van Pelt (born July 9, 1966) is an American sportscaster and sports talk show host employed by ESPN. He is a long time anchor of key editions of '' SportsCenter'' on ESPN, served as the co-host of '' SVP & Russillo'' alongside Ryen Russi ...
edition of ''SportsCenter'' has been produced out of a studio in Washington, D.C., inside the
ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...
bureau since 2020, in the former studio of '' Around the Horn''. The 1 a.m. Eastern edition of ''SportsCenter'' has been produced out of ESPN's Los Angeles Production Center at L.A. Live since 2009; that edition also is repeated during the overnight hours. ESPN also produces short 90-second capsules known as ''SportsCenter 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 networks
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...
and
ESPNews ESPNews (pronounced "ESPN News," stylized ESPNEWS) is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hear ...
, the program also produces short in-game updates during sports events aired on ABC and until 2017, an interstitial play countdown segment for fellow network Disney XD.


Conditions to showing highlights

Some sports leagues and organizations, including the
National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
(NBA),
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
(NHL), and college athletic conferences that are members of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
(NCAA) and the
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for higher education, colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic schola ...
(NAIA), allow for brief highlights to be shown while a game is in progress. From 2006 to 2013,
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
only allowed ongoing game highlights to air during ''SportsCenter'' within the '' Baseball Tonight Extra'' segments in the broadcast. The
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
(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 of Olympic events until after they have aired on tape-delay on NBC (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 the
2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...
, with the network obtaining these extended rights from NBC as part of the 2006 deal that saw ABC release
Al Michaels Alan Richard Michaels (born November 12, 1944) is an American television play-by-play sportscaster for '' Thursday Night Football'' on Amazon Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports. He has worked on network sports television sin ...
from his contract, in order to join John Madden and key production personnel for the new '' NBC Sunday Night Football'' (this same deal also reverted rights to the Walt Disney-produced '' Oswald the Lucky Rabbit'' cartoons from
Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...
, which originally distributed the shorts). In addition, there are many anecdotal reports of various television networks (such as
CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...
,
NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...
, and BeIN 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 the
NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...
Nationwide Series or Sprint Cup Series race during highlights of such events (for example, the " Allstate 400 at the Brickyard" was referred to as the "Brickyard 400 pres. by Golden Corral"), unless the title sponsor of the race is paid for to the network; a similar stipulation also applied to the network's
IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, officially known as the NTT IndyCar Series for sponsorship reasons, is the highest class of American open-wheel car racing in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of various sanctioning bodies sinc ...
coverage until 2018.


History

''SportsCenter'' was conceived in 1979 and created by ESPN executives Chet Simmons and Scotty Connal. The program was originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande, Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Tom Mees.


1970s

Grande introduced the country to ESPN when he co-anchored the premiere episode of ''SportsCenter'' on September 7, 1979, with Leonard, a longtime
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
sports broadcaster. According to ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'', 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." Grande spent ten more years with ESPN and ''SportsCenter'' 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 on
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
and
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
coverage. He does, however, still occasionally appear as a substitute anchor. Bob Ley, who also hosted '' Outside the Lines'', regularly appeared on the Sunday morning edition of ''SportsCenter'' until his retirement in 2019.


1980s

In 1988, the program's format was changed by
executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...
Walsh from focusing on individual sports or leagues to a "newspaper-style" structure, prioritizing stories by importance rather than by sport. 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" by
Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (, ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; , ), was a Greek musician, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He composed ...
. 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 by John Colby, who served as ESPN's music director from 1984 to 1992, creating and producing music for various sporting events and programs seen on the network. The current version of the theme was composed in 2006 by Annie Roboff, who also co-wrote Faith Hill's 1998 hit " This Kiss".


1990s

In 1994, ESPN launched the '' This Is SportsCenter'' advertising 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." The team of Dan Patrick and Keith 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 channel
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...
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 and Stuart Scott became the show's primary anchor team.


2000s

In 2001,
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
-based Bell Globemedia and ESPN (which received a minority stake) jointly acquired The Sports Network (TSN). As part of its shift to ESPN-influenced branding, the specialty channel rebranded its existing sports news program ''SportsDesk'' and changed its name to '' SportsCentre'', using the same introductions and theme music as the ESPN version, except with its title rendered using Canadian spelling. On September 11, 2001, ESPN interrupted regular programming at 11:05 a.m. Eastern to cover the immediate aftermath of the terror attacks through a simulcast of
ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...
coverage. ESPN considered suspending that night's editions of ''SportsCenter'', before deciding to air a half-hour edition in which they announced the cancellations of major upcoming sporting events. On June 7, 2004, ''SportsCenter'' began broadcasting in high definition. Along with the conversion, the program introduced a new set designed by
Walt Disney Imagineering Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc.—commonly referred to as Walt Disney Imagineering, Imagineering, or WDI—is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construc ...
(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. During that summer, ESPN celebrated its 25th anniversary, by counting down the top 100 moments in sports over the previous 25 years. The countdown was seen on each ''SportsCenter'' broadcast daily beginning on May 31, 2004; the countdown concluded with the #1 moment, the United States men's national ice hockey team's
victory The term victory (from ) originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal duel, combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitutes a strategic vi ...
over the
USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
during the 1980 Winter Olympics, airing on September 7, 2004. During the summer of 2005, ''SportsCenter'' premiered a segment called "50 States in 50 Days", where a different ''SportsCenter'' anchor traveled to a different state each day to discover the sports, sports history, and athletes of the state. On April 4, 2006, ''SportsCenter'' began to show highlights of
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
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 any ''SportsCenter'' broadcasts until the games completed play. On February 11, 2007, following the NBA game between the Chicago Bulls and the Phoenix Suns, ''SportsCenter'' aired its 30,000th broadcast. The special milestone edition was anchored by Steve 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). ESPN also debuted the ''SportsCenter Minute'', a one-minute ''SportsCenter'' update that is streamed exclusively on ESPN.com. Four months later on May 6, another major change to ''SportsCenter'' 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; on ESPNHD, the sidebar graphic filled the right pillarbox where the ESPNHD logo would usually appear when standard definition footage was presented. The 6:00 p.m. edition of ''SportsCenter'' 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 of Roger Clemens's second start for the
New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...
' minor league affiliate in
Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Scranton is the most populous city in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the ...
. The 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time edition of ''SportsCenter'' on August 7, 2007, which was anchored by John Buccigross and Cindy Brunson, showed live coverage of Barry Bonds's 756th career home run, which broke the old MLB record set by Hank Aaron (ESPN was carrying the game live on ESPN2). In August 2008, the former WWE employee Jonathan Coachman joined ESPN to anchor the show. On August 11, 2008, during the opening week of the 2008 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. That same year, Hannah Storm (former
NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...
reporter and anchor of CBS's '' The Early Show'') joined ESPN to anchor the 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. block of the program. The new format included two teams of two anchors in three-hour shifts: * 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time: Kevin Negandhi (originally Josh Elliott) and Hannah Storm * 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time: Jay Crawford (originally Robert Flores, then John Buccigross) and Chris McKendry In addition, Sage Steele would provide updates every 30 minutes from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The changes also included a new website for the program – SportsCenter.com, which launched on August 11, 2008 – to promote more interaction with viewers. 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, the ''SportsCenter High-5'', for sister channel Disney XD (which is owned by ESPN majority owner
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
). 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 of ''SportsCenter'' live from ESPN's production facilities in the newly constructed L.A. Live complex (just across from the Staples 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 and Stan Verrett were appointed as the primary anchors for the Los Angeles-based editions of ''SportsCenter''. A new BottomLine ticker was also unveiled that day on four of the five ESPN networks (ESPN,
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...
, ESPN Classic and
ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remain ...
); 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 the 2009 NFL draft and the 2009 NBA draft). After technical issues with the revamped BottomLine were fixed, the new BottomLine was reinstated on July 8. The 2009 U.S. Open Golf Championship, which was repeatedly delayed due to weather, aired on both NBC 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 the
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...
" and "''SportsCenter'' at the
World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...
"). 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.


2010s

On August 30, 2010, ESPN expanded ''SportsCenter'' to
ESPNews ESPNews (pronounced "ESPN News," stylized ESPNEWS) is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hear ...
, 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. By late 2010, the "rundown" graphic was expanded to all editions of ''SportsCenter''. 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 of ''SportsCenter'' – left ESPN to become news anchor for ABC's ''
Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...
'' 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 a 16:9 letterbox 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 employee Todd 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, replacing Brian Kenny (who departed ESPN to become a program host for the MLB 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 astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first 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 pioneer Rosa Parks in 2005, the election of
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
as
President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
in 2008, the Killing of Osama bin Laden, and the later death of former South African president Nelson Mandela on December 5, 2013. On December 3, 2012, Lindsay Czarniak became the main co-anchor of the 6:00 p.m. edition of ''SportsCenter''. On February 8 and 9, 2013, the 11:00 p.m. editions of ''SportsCenter'' on both nights were broadcast from Los Angeles, due to a massive snowstorm in the
Northeastern United States The Northeastern United States (also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. Located on the East Coast of the 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 large LED high definition monitor placed behind the main anchor desk was added to the main ''SportsCenter'' set in the network's Bristol facility. In February 2014, production of the weeknight 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) editions of ''SportsCenter'' was temporarily relocated back to Bristol, due to renovations being made at the network's ''SportsCenter'' studio in Los Angeles. In addition, Neil Everett and Stan Verrett – both of whom had anchored ''SportsCenter'' 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 of ''SportsCenter'', 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. On February 2 and 3, 2015, Lindsay Czarniak anchored the 6:00 p.m. (Eastern) edition of ''SportsCenter'' 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 the Scottsdale Fashion Square in
Scottsdale, Arizona Scottsdale is a city in eastern Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and is part of the Phoenix metropolitan area. Named Scottsdale in 1894 after its founder Winfield Scott (chaplain), Winfield Scott, a retired Chaplain Corps (United States ...
as part of the program's coverage of
Super Bowl XLIX Super Bowl XLIX was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2014 NFL season, 2014 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion 2014 New England Patriots season, New Eng ...
. 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 other ''SportsCenter'' editions and promoted as ''SportsCenter 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 show ''SVP and Russillo'', during the replacement of Danny Kanell as the new co-host of Russillo Show alongside Ryen Russillo, and utilizes a modified version of the show's theme (composed by
Timbaland Timothy Zachery Mosley (born March 10, 1972), known professionally as Timbaland, is an American record producer and rapper. Born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, he is widely acclaimed for his distinctive production work and "stuttering" rhythm ...
), as well as a different lighting and graphics set. In October 2015, Ronda Rousey became the first female athlete to guest host on the show. 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., titled ''SportsCenter:AM'', also branded ''SC:AM''. 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 with ''Good Morning America'' and ESPN2/ESPN Radio's '' Mike & Mike''. On October 11, 2016, ESPN named '' His & Hers'' co-hosts Jemele Hill and Michael Smith as co-anchors of the 6:00 p.m. ET edition of ''SportsCenter'', effective February 6, 2017 (the day after Super 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 the terror attacks on Stade de France and downtown
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
as well as the hostage situation in the Bataclan theatre, where a concert by American rock band Eagles of Death Metal was interrupted by terrorists who killed 89 people.
ESPN FC ESPN FC (formerly ESPN SoccerNet) is a website and a U.S. television studio program covering soccer that is broadcast daily over the streaming service ESPN+. ESPN FC's origin was a website owned by ESPN Inc. Originally established in 1995 as Soc ...
correspondent Jonathan Johnson, as well as then French president
François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. Before his presidency, he was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (France), First Secretary of th ...
, were attending the game in the Stade 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's PA 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 and
social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
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 of ''SportsCenter'' moved from ESPN to ESPN2, effectively switching channels with the two-hour debate program '' First Take'', which moved from ESPN2 to ESPN. On February 6, 2017, the newly revamped 6:00 p.m. ET of ''SportsCenter'', known as ''SC6'' ''with Michael/Jemele'' (pronounced ''SportsCenter 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, like ''SportsCenter with SVP'', was more freeform than other editions of ''SportsCenter''. In addition, ''SC6'' focused on the night ahead in sports, as well as breaking sports news as warranted. On April 26, 2017, ''SportsCenter'' anchors Jay Crawford, Chris Hassel, Jade McCarthy, Sara Walsh and Jaymee Sire (who had co-anchored ''SportsCenter:AM'' since its debut on February 8, 2016) were among the 100 staffers who were let go by ESPN. Several notable changes were implemented for ''SportsCenter'' beginning on August 28, 2017. Sage Steele and Randy Scott replaced Sire (who was laid off four months earlier) and Kevin Negandhi as co-anchors for the weekday editions of ''SportsCenter:AM'' joining Jay Harris, while Matt Barrie and Elle Duncan co-anchor the weekend editions of ''SportsCenter:AM'' alongside Negandhi (who has since left that show to co-anchor the weeknight 6:00 p.m. ET editions of ''SportsCenter'' 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 of ''SportsCenter'' (such as ''SC:AM'', ''SC@Night'' and so on). ESPN debuted a brand new advertising campaign for ''SportsCenter'' which was created by Droga5 in late 2017. It was originally expected to replace the long-running This Is SportsCenter advertising campaign as it would be discontinued. As of 2020, the latter advertising campaign (This is SportsCenter) is still being shown. On November 29, 2017, within an announcement of 150 behind-the-scenes staff members being laid off, ESPN announced the end of the primetime ''SportsCenter'' editions airing on ESPNews as of November 30 (breaking sports news coverage will be maintained where needed). Following Jemele Hill's departure from ''SportsCenter'' for The Undefeated after the final ''SC6'' show on February 2, 2018, Michael Smith became the solo anchor of the 6:00 p.m. ET edition of ''SportsCenter'', which itself reverted to that title on February 5; Smith himself departed from ''SportsCenter'' on March 9. As of March 1, 2021, the weeknight 6:00 p.m. ET editions of ''SportsCenter'' 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 of '' Get Up!'' on ESPN on April 2, 2018, ''SportsCenter:AM'' moved to
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...
(the first hour of the latter show has since moved back to ESPN), while '' Golic and Wingo'' moved to
ESPNews ESPNews (pronounced "ESPN News," stylized ESPNEWS) is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hear ...
. Consequently, the 10:00 a.m. ET edition of ''SportsCenter'' 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.


2020s

On March 11, 2020, the NBA announced that it would suspend the 2019–20 NBA season indefinitely following the conclusion of that night's games as a result of Rudy Gobert testing positive for
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
before a game between the
Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. Since the 1991–92 season, the ...
and the
Oklahoma City Thunder The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Confer ...
at Chesapeake 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 the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, and several major
college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...
tournaments were also canceled after plans to initially play the games without 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. As a result of the pandemic, ESPN significantly reduced the production of ''SportsCenter'', 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 by ''The Pat McAfee Show''). In February 2025, ESPN announced a new version of SportsCenter, ''SC+'', which will air exclusively on
Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
. On May 19, 2025 ''SportsCenter'' aired its final show from Los Angeles, anchored by Linda Cohn and Stan Verrett. Cohn's predecrssor, Neil Everett, made a special appearance on the final Los Angeles edition, which ended production after 16 years. "SportsCenter: 50 States in 50 Days" will return for its 20th anniversary on June 27, 2025.


Segments


On-air staff


Current on-air staff

;Anchors (as of May 2025) * 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 Scott Van Pelt (born July 9, 1966) is an American sportscaster and sports talk show host employed by ESPN. He is a long time anchor of key editions of '' SportsCenter'' on ESPN, served as the co-host of '' SVP & Russillo'' alongside Ryen Russi ...
* Christine Williamson


Other editions


''SportsCenter Australia''

''SportsCenter Australia'' is shown on ESPN Australia.


ESPN America version

On March 1, 2010, ESPN launched a special domestic edition of ''SportsCenter'' on its European channel ESPN America. The half-hour program, anchored by Michael Kim, aired Monday through Fridays at 6:00 a.m. Western European Time (7:00 a.m.
Central European Time Central European Time (CET) is a standard time of Central, and parts of Western Europe, which is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The UTC offset, time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Eur ...
), 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 SportsCenter''

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...
broadcasts '' ESPN 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 within minutes after its first broadcast.


''SportsCenter AM''

SportsCenter AM was a radio show on
ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...
hosted by ''ESPN Radio SportsCenter'' anchor Jay Reynolds. The show has been replaced by ''First and Last'' in July 2017. ''SportsCenter AM'' featured scores from all major sporting events including the NFL, NBA,
NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
, and MLB. 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 into '' Mike and Mike in the Morning''. It ran much like the ''SportsCenter'' program on
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
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 one ''SportsCenter'' update at 4:30 a.m. A ''SportsCenter'' ''Express'', hosted by Doug Brown, took place where the normal ''SportsCenter'' breaks would be, at 4:20 and 4:40 a.m.


TSN ''SportsCentre''

'' SportsCentre'' is the daily sports news television program on TSN, the Canadian sports network in which ESPN is a minority owner. The title is rendered in Canadian spelling. It uses the similar look and format to ESPN's ''SportsCenter'', the current ESPN ''SportsCenter'' theme, as well as some of the same features and segments.


''SportsCenter Philippines''

SportsCenter Philippines is a local version of ''SportsCenter'', as a result of the partnership between ESPN and Sports5 (now One Sports), a division of Philippine-based media company TV5 Network. It is launched on December 17, 2017, coinciding the 2017–18 season of the
Philippine Basketball Association The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines, composed of twelve company-branded Franchising, franchise teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia ...
. ''SportsCenter Right Now'', a bulletin version of the program, was launched earlier on November 24, during the Group B rounds of the 2019 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers.


''SportsCenter on Snapchat''

''SportsCenter on Snapchat'' is a version of ''SportsCenter'' distributed exclusively on Snapchat, 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 include Elle Duncan, Janelle Marie Rodriguez, Cassidy Hubbarth, formerly Jason Fitz, Cy Amundson, Gary Striewski, formerly Andrew Hawkins, formerly Treavor Scales, and formerly Mike Golic Jr. Katie Nolan was a host until the start of her show ''Always Late with Katie Nolan''. In March 2018, it was nominated for a Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Social TV Experience and gets 2 million unique visitors each day.


''SportsCenter en Español''

''SportsCenter'' has a Spanish language version in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and Mexico, which is called ''SportsCenter en Español'' and is broadcast nightly on ESPN Deportes, ESPN Latin America and Star+. Antonio Valle, Fernando Tirado, Jorge Eduardo Sánchez, José Briseño, José Antonio "Toño" Rodríguez, Julia Headley, Kary Correa and Miguel Ángel Briseño are some of the show's reporters.


Spin-offs

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


See also

*
ESPNews ESPNews (pronounced "ESPN News," stylized ESPNEWS) is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hear ...
– ESPN's 24-hour sports news network, which carries specialized editions of ''SportsCenter'' * ESPN3 – an interactive sports streaming service featuring supplementary programming content * '' Fox Sports Live'' – a daily sports news program on Fox Sports 1, which served as the direct competitor of ''SportsCenter'' * '' The 'Lights'' – a daily sports highlight program on NBCSN, that differed from both ''Fox Sports Live'' and ''SportsCenter'' in its use of voiceovers for presenting highlights in lieu of on-camera anchors


References


Further reading

* *


External links

* * {{Subject bar, auto=y, q=y, d=y 1979 American television series debuts 1970s American television series 1980s American television series 1990s American television series 2000s American television series 2010s American television series 2020s American television series 1970s American television news shows 1980s American television news shows 1990s American television news shows 2000s American television news shows 2010s American television news shows 2020s American television news shows American English-language television shows ESPN original programming Flagship evening news shows 1970s American sports television series 1980s American sports television series 1990s American sports television series 2000s American sports television series 2010s American sports television series 2020s American sports television series