''Sports Tonight'' is an American sports news television program that aired on

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

from 1980 to 2001, and on CNN/SI from December 12, 1996 to the channel's demise on May 15, 2002. It normally aired at 11 p.m. ET/10 p.m. CT.

History

The early years

When CNN went on the air on June 1, 1980 one of the first newscasts was a sports bulletin where

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 ...

and

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

highlights were shown. Later, a nightly program called ''Sports Tonight'' went on the air in late night. During this time, Nick Charles and

Fred Hickman Frederick Hickman (October 17, 1956 – November 9, 2022) was an American sports broadcaster with CNN, TBS, YES Network, and ESPN. He was later an anchor and managing editor for the evening newscast of the African-American cable news channel Bl ...

became established as the program's co-hosts. In addition, CNN aired a weekend program called ''Sports Saturday'' and ''Sports Sunday''. One of the program's most popular features was called "Play of the Day" (later known as the "Replay of the Day"), which showed a highlight (i.e., a spectacular play) from that day's action.

The 1990s and the end

In 1996, CNN launched a new station called CNN/SI. ''Sports Tonight'' was renamed ''CNN/Sports Illustrated'', and was replayed many times throughout the night on CNN/SI, like

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 ...

was doing (and continues to do) with ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande, Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...

''. The program reclaimed its ''Sports Tonight'' name shortly afterwards, and when CNN pre-empted the show in late 2000 due to the coverage of the disputed 2000 presidential election, producers decided to differentiate the format from ''SportsCenter''s highlights. ''Sports Tonight'' was relaunched in 2001 with a

sports talk Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...

format, where viewers interacted with the hosts via the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

and

toll-free A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number is free of charge, unless air-charges apply for mobile telephone service. A toll-free ...

phone lines about their favorite teams and players. By then, Charles was no longer hosting; Hickman and

Vince Cellini Vincent Robert Cellini (; born June 10, 1959) is an American sports broadcaster for radio and television, currently working at NBA TV and TNT Sports. Early life and career Cellini was a lifeguard at Grovewood, a city pool on the east side of C ...

were the program's hosts. ''Sports Tonight'' continued on both CNN and CNN/SI until September 2001. When the

terrorist attacks The following is a list of terrorist incidents that were not carried out by a state or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism). Assassinations are presented in List of assassinations and unsuccessful attempts at List o ...

occurred on September 11, 2001, CNN went to all-news programming. Three days later, CNN announced that the program would no longer air on CNN, but remain on CNN/SI. In May 2002, CNN/SI shut down operations,CNN/SI signed off with anchors thanking viewers and repeated the same edition of Sports Tonight until midnight, when the channel showed a blue screen with the message, "The owners of CNN/SI have stopped production of the network, and we regret that we can no longer provide it to you."
/ref> and ''Sports Tonight'' ended after a 21-year run.

Aftermath

Since the cancellation of ''Sports Tonight'', CNN has aired various programming at 11 p.m. ET, including '' Connie Chung Tonight'', ''

Lou Dobbs Tonight ''Lou Dobbs Tonight'' is an American political and financial talk program that was hosted by Lou Dobbs. The program initially aired on CNN from its launch under the title ''Moneyline'', as its main financial news program. The program later shift ...

'', ''

Anderson Cooper 360 Anderson may refer to: Companies * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson Racing Karts, a manufacturer of Superkart racing chassis * O.P. Anderson, a brand of aquavit ...

'', ''

Erin Burnett OutFront ''Erin Burnett OutFront'' is an hour-long television news program hosted by Erin Burnett on CNN. The show premiered on October 3, 2011 in the 7:00pm time slot to replace '' John King, USA''. Until the launch of '' CNN Tonight'' in 2014, ''Out ...

'', '' Don Lemon Tonight'', ''

CNN Tonight ''CNN Tonight'' is the title of several news programs that were broadcast by U.S. cable network CNN. The ''CNN Tonight'' branding has primarily been used for transitional programs aired by CNN in the evening and prime time hours as part of chang ...

'' and currently '' Laura Coates Live'' .

CNN International Cable News Network International or CNN International (CNNi, simply branded on-air as CNN) is an international television channel and website, owned by CNN Worldwide. CNN International carries news-related programming worldwide; it cooperates ...

airs a similar show, ''World Sport'', that airs several times a day as of 2023. In 2024, as part of its launch of a nightly sports block programmed by

TNT Sports TNT Sports is the brand name for sports television channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world that are owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The name originates from the American cable television ...

, sibling network

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable Television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts reruns of Television comedy, comedy, Reality television, docusoaps and reality shows, with a rec ...

began airing a 6 p.m. ET news show titled ''TNT Sports Tonight'' (originally announced as ''TNT Sports Update''), which is produced by CNN and hosted by Coy Wire.

List of ''Sports Tonight'' hosts

*Andre Aldrige *Steve Bartelstein *

Steve Berthiaume Steve Berthiaume () is an American television sportscaster who serves as the play-by-play broadcast announcer for the Arizona Diamondbacks and is a former anchor on ESPN and a former sportscaster for SportsNet New York (SNY). Broadcasting ca ...

* Nick Charles *Paul Crane *Justin Farmer *Bob Fiscella *John Fricke *

Mike Galanos Mike Galanos (born November 7, 1964) is a former American news anchor for HLN, currently appearing as part of the team on '' Morning Express with Robin Meade''. Based in CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, Galanos joined the network in May 2002 ...

*Eric Goodman *Inga Hammond *Kara Henderson *

* Dan Hicks * Jim Huber *

Daryn Kagan Daryn A. Kagan is an American broadcast journalist who was formerly a news anchor for CNN. From 1994 to 2006, Kagan served as an anchor and correspondent for CNN, in CNN's corporate headquarters of Atlanta, Georgia. She anchored ''CNN Live To ...

*Tom Kirkland *Barry LeBrock * Bob Lorenz *Mark McKay * Gary Miller * Nancy Newman *

Keith Olbermann Keith Theodore Olbermann (born January 27, 1959) is an American sports and political commentator and writer. Olbermann spent the first 20 years of his career in sports journalism. He was a sports correspondent for CNN and for local TV and ra ...

* Dan Patrick *

Chris Rose Christopher Rose (born January 27, 1971) is an American sportscaster for the NFL Network, and the interim radio play-by-play announcer for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). Outside of football, he is also a commentator ...

* Craig Sager *Larry Smith *

Hannah Storm Hannah Lynn Storen Hicks (born June 13, 1962), known professionally as Hannah Storm, is an American television sports journalist, serving as the anchor of ESPN's ''SportsCenter''. She was also host of the '' NBA Countdown'' pregame show on ABC ...

* Van Earl Wright

References

External links

CNNSI.com - Television - Sports Tonight
{{CNN CNN original programming 1980 American television series debuts 2002 American television series endings 1980s American television news shows 1990s American television news shows 2000s American television news shows 1980s American sports television series CNN/SI original programming 1990s American sports television series 2000s American sports television series