SportsCenter is a sports news show that highlights major sports, sports players and news stories. When ESPN first launched in 1979 as the world's first 24-hour a day sports network, they created the concept of a nightly sports news program. This was done not only to help initially fill programming time, but also to provide a source of sports news and highlights from around the country. Before then, most sports fans only were able to view sports news and highlights from their local news programs, and in most cases, the 3-5 minute segment would concentrate only on teams and games in that market. When SportsCenter first launched, with George Grande as it's first ever host, there was no sports radio or internet to provide instant information. Eventually, the show became a staple of the ESPN programming, and eventually took on iconic status for its barrage of highlights coupled with clever catchphrases created by the hosts. The only two original season SportsCenter hosts still employed with the network are Chris Berman, who now mostly covers baseball and NFL pre-games, and Bob Ley. AMong the group of current hosts include: Kenny Mayne, Stuart Scott, Steve Levy, John Anderson, Scott Van Pelt, John Buccigross, and Linda Cohn. Past hosts of the show include: Keith Olbermann, Craig Kilborn, Rich Eisen, Dan Patrick, Tom Mees, Kevin Frazier, and Charley Steiner.
Fast Facts:
- Airing Nightly Since 1979
- Network: ESPN
- Airs up to 12 times a day
- 30,000 unique episodes
- Taped: Bristol, Connecticut
