ESPN Launches Newsmagazine E:60
Tom Farrey, Lisa Salters, Jeremy Schaap, Rachel Nichols and Michael Smith courtesy ESPN, Inc.
ESPN will premiere its first prime-time sports newsmagazine,
E:60, tomorrow night (Oct. 16, 7 pm/ET). The slighlty awkward title is a play on the network's "360" cross-platforming initiative. (Similarities to the granddaddy of newsmagazines,
60 Minutes, must be purely coincidental.)
Named after the 360-degree cross-platform approach to sports journalism,
E:60 is an hour-long series that will cull in-depth interviews, investigative sports reports and behind-the-scenes footage. (The series will air for four weeks, then return for five more episodes in the spring and six next summer.)
"Sports is so central to the culture these days and is the flashpoint for issues that extend beyond sports, and we think there's a need and a place for another vehicle for really exploring the great journalistic stories that are happening in sports today," says Robert Wallace, ESPN vice president and
E:60 executive producer. "That's our mission."
The premiere episode showcases a Florida high-school-football scandal; an interview with former baseball player Cecil Fielder highlighting the estranged relationship with his son, Milwaukee Brewers' first baseman Prince Fielder; and an emotional reunion between the parents of Jason Ray, the North Carolina men's basketball mascot who was accidentally killed last year, and the recipients of his donated organs.
Correspondents for
E:60 include a team of award-winning ESPN reporters:
Jeremy Schaap,
Lisa Salters,
Tom Farrey, Rachel Nichols and Michael Smith.
- Reporting by Rob Moynihan
