Daytime SportsCenter Launches Monday
Hannah Storm by Joe Faraoni/ESPN
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Hannah Storm and her husband Dan Hicks are both back in the swim. As Storm begins hosting ESPN's new live weekday
SportsCenter Monday in the 9 a.m. to noon/ET timeslot, Hicks is on the other side of the world calling Olympic swimming events in Beijing for NBC.
"It's a funny parallel, because he does swimming every four years," says Storm, an NBC Sports veteran who has also worked the Olympics. "We were talking about how you've got to crank those muscles back up and try to remember what it's like. It's the same thing here. I haven't done sports in a long time, haven't done a highlight-intensive show since my CNN years Then boom, you're doing it on
SportsCenter, the greatest, most iconic franchise show in sports television."
The live weekday
SportsCenter editions (which replace the rerun cycle from the previous night's show) was "just an idea whose time had come and been coming for a long time," says Storm, who will anchor the first three hours with
Josh Elliott. Another show will air from noon to 3 pm/ET, hosted by
Chris McKendry and
Robert Flores. "People want their information right away," Storm says. "Things are happening around the clock in sports: Trades, signings, retirements, pseudo-retirements if you count Brett Favre."
Storm says she's "passionate about sports" and missed it during
her 2002-07 stint on CBS's The Early Show. She also loves the adrenaline rush of live TV. "It's not on tape, which for me is like nirvana," Storm says. "You've always got to be on your game." And she vows not to come up with one of those signature - and often grating - catchphrases that
SportsCenter anchors are known for. "It's just not me," she says. "I've always had a lot of success just being very authentic and being myself. That means trying to be smart, prepared, funny when it warrants and relaxed and not taking yourself too seriously."
- Karen Rosen
