ESPN held its upfront presentation Tuesday morning at the Nokia Theater in New York. Anchors Scott Van Pelt and Steve Levy hosted the event as a mock SportsCenter episode. The 80-minute presentation was light on programming announcements, but the biggest news was the addition of a block of live SportsCenters from 6 am to 3 pm/ET, beginning Monday, Aug. 11. A new web site, SportsCenter.com, will also debut in August. It was also confirmed that The Early Show's Hannah Storm will be one of the new anchors for this block. In other SportsCenter news, a 1 am/ET edition produced live in Los Angeles, will premiere on April 9, 2009.Other new programming includes ESPN Homecoming, an profile/interview show with Rick Reilly, who the network poached from Sports Illustrated last fall.Features reporter, deadpan "comedian" and Dancing With the Stars vet Kenny Mayne will host a new humor show for espn.com called Mayne Street.ESPN will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2009 with "30 For 30," a series...
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In what can be best described as a media trade-off, Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly has jumped to ESPN, perhaps as a direct response to SI’s hiring of former SportsCenter anchor Dan Patrick last week.According to the sports network, Reilly will take his popular back-page column to ESPN: The Magazine and ESPN.com, while also contributing to short television essays and interviews.“I’m thrilled, this is an itch I’d love to scratch,” Reilly said in a conference call with the media today. “I want to take my voice to a different place, and I’m hoping to bring well-written essays to TV.”Reilly was mum about the hiring of Patrick, however, insisting the moves were purely coincidental and that he wishes Patrick the best of luck. Patrick was hired by Sports Illustrated to contribute a weekly column and provide a platform for his radio show on SI.com. —Reporting by Rob MoynihanUPDATE: The New York Post reports that ESPN snagged Reilly with ...
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