SportsCenter Going Live in a.m., Adding Hannah Storm

ESPN Flagship Show to Add Former CBS Early Show Anchor, Air Live Monday-Friday 6 a.m.-3 p.m.

By Alex Weprin -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/13/2008 7:09:00 AM

SportsCenter, ESPN’s flagship program, will go live daily from 6 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday, the network announced Tuesday.

ESPN also announced that former CBS Early Show anchor Hannah Storm will anchor the 9 a.m.-noon block of SportsCenter once it goes live in August.

ESPN will premiere the live morning edition of SportsCenter starting Aug. 11, the opening week of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Storm is no stranger to the Olympics, having hosted programs from Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney and Salt Lake City during her time at NBC Sports.

ESPN is also launching Sportscenter.com, which the network hopes will increase interaction with its viewers, allowing for instant polls, feedback and questions to the anchors.

And the network will have a continuous “bottom line,” providing sports scores and updates continuously, even during commercial breaks. The “rundown” -- which shows viewers what stories are coming up on the program -- will be continuously updated throughout the day as the show progresses.

ESPN said it expects to start the morning edition of SportsCenter with a recap of the previous day’s sports news, but it will move toward news of the day and previews of that evening’s events as it gets toward the middle of the day.

“These live SportsCenters will answer fans’ call for greater immediacy and interactivity,” executive vice president of production Norby Williamson said in announcing the new lineup. “Going live will allow us to put a fresh perspective on the previous night’s games and cover breaking news during the day, all within the traditional SportsCenter approach, which focuses on highlights, scores and news.”

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