The End of SportsCenter: ESPN’s Flagship Show Hits Bottom

[TMC]

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2013...w-hits-bottom/

“SportsCenter” has been in decline for years, but now it is in absolute freefall.

When ESPN added live weekday editions of SportsCenter in 2008, the move was long overdue. Up until that point, ESPN televised the 1 AM “SportsCenter” on repeat all morning long. Important stories that broke early in the day — such as the 2007 death of Sean Taylor — were not covered adequately. In addition, having the same highlights and same commentary hour after hour made ESPN a stale location on weekday mornings.

The live SportsCenter allowed ESPN to have fresh content and the ability to react better to breaking news. It has also, however, resulted in six hours of airtime that need to be filled — and hardly ever, at this point, by highlights.

Over the years, the morning SportsCenter has become a plague of bombastic analysis, artificial debate, and whatever is racking up hits online. Highlights take a backseat, unless they are used in the service of more debate.

The worst aspects of the morning “SportsCenter” were evident on Monday. The morning shows led with a viral video (a high school basketball buzzer beater) and then conducted separate lengthy interviews with the player and coach involved. The fans would get to decide whether the buzzer beater or a Jadeveon Clowney hit from earlier in the year was the ‘best of the best’ play, a distinction that means nothing. During the interview, Ravens RB Ray Rice called in to congratulate the players; anchor Jay Crawford asked him which play should win an ESPY Award — the high school buzzer beater, or Rice’s own 4th-and-29 run during the NFL regular season.

As the topping on the ESPN sundae, star pundit Stephen A. Smith was allowed to opine about the Blackhawks’ NHL points streak, a subject about which he was strikingly ignorant. During the Noon ET show, he debated Barry Melrose on the issue, because of course he did. Indeed, this is SportsCenter — endless debate, fan interaction, and once in awhile, some highlights.

Briefly, here is a look at the factors that have made the morning SportsCenter some of the worst television ESPN has to offer.

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http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/...nter-be-saved/

The ESPN institution is trying to reinvent itself amid declining ratings.

[TVFactFan]

I definitely stopped watching it lol

[TMC]

1) Replace First Take, obviously, but with what?

2) Rebrand ESPNEWS as ESPN3

3) Finally come up with some consistent policies on discipline and attribution

4) Cover the NFL like you do soccer

5) Bring the affinity sites under the Grantland umbrella… and launch The Undefeated

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/30179e7...9%3Bs-ceo.html

ESPN built a dominance in sports media by dictating what everyone was talking about. Throughout the 90s and into the 2000s, ESPN ruled the storylines, Bleacher Report CEO Dave Finocchio tells Business Insider. “[ESPN owned] a huge percentage of the actual game consumption, but there were others - Turner is a big player, CBS is a big player, Fox, NBC," he says. "[ESPN had] competition there at least. But sports narratives, and what SportsCenter used to represent in the United States, they just owned all of the storylines. If ESPN wanted to make something a storyline in sports, it was a national storyline." That power has started to slip with the rise of phones and the internet, Finocchio says.

[simmytbone]

Sportscenter isn't the same w/o Stuart Scott

IMO, I'm not surprised

I watch NBCSN and CBS Sports Network to get news on Sports, but also, I watch NFL Network and sometimes, I watch FS1