The 70+ Best ESPN Shows, Ranked
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Vote up the best original TV shows that have ever debuted on ESPN.
- 1Dan Rather, Magic Johnson, Michael JordanThe documentary series focuses on notable sports happenings.
- 2Tony Reali, Michael Wilbon, Tony KornheiserPardon the Interruption is a sports television show that airs weekdays on various ESPN TV channels, TSN, ESPN America, XM, and Sirius satellite radio services, and as a downloadable podcast. It is hosted by Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, who discuss, and frequently argue over, the top stories of the day in "sports... and other stuff". The show has emanated from Washington, D.C. since its debut, as both Kornheiser and Wilbon were writing for The Washington Post at the time. Originally recorded at Atlantic Video's facilities in Washington, the show now occupies space at ABC News' Washington bureau. Voice actress Kat Cressida lends her voice to commercial bumpers for the series and has since its premiere. From the premiere of PTI until September 8, 2014, Tony Reali served as the show's statistician and eventually became a de facto co-host. Reali became the host of Around the Horn in 2004 while continuing his job on PTI, eventually leaving when ATH moved production from Washington to New York City.
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College GameDay Football
Desmond Howard, Lou Holtz, Mark MayCollege GameDay is an ESPN entertainment show previewing college football games. It first aired in 1987 with Tim Brando as host and Lee Corso and Beano Cook as commentators. Beginning more-or-less as a report on college football games, the show would undergo a radical transformation beginning in 1993 as the show began incorporating "live" broadcasts. The official name of the show is College GameDay built by The Home Depot. There is a separate radio broadcast, ESPN Radio College GameDay, on ESPN Radio. Today, the only original cast member remaining is Lee Corso. Chris Fowler serves as host and Kirk Herbstreit, former Ohio State quarterback, serves as Corso's counterpart and foil. Starting in 2008, former Michigan receiver and Heisman Trophy-winner Desmond Howard has been added to the cast in the show's introduction. Former SMU running back Craig James served as an analyst from 1990 to 1995. Erin Andrews joined the GameDay crew as a co-host and contributor in 2010, replaced in 2012 by Samantha Ponder. On September 5, 2015, Rece Davis, will replace Fowler as host of the college football version, which itself will start its 29th season on that day. - 4Neil Everett, Jalen Rose, Jenn BrownSportsCenter is a daily sports news television program and the flagship program of American cable and satellite television network ESPN since the network's launch on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only once daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major sporting events, along with commentary, previews and feature stories. The show has aired more than 50,000 unique episodes, more than any other program on American television, and is shot in ESPN's studio facilities in Bristol, Connecticut and Los Angeles, California.More SportsCenter
- Dig Deeper...The Best SportsCenter Anchors of All Time
- #163 of 206 onThe 150+ Most Popular Shows Right Now
- #49 of 64 onThe 60+ Best Daytime TV Shows
- 5Melissa StarkMonday Night Football is a live television broadcast of weekly National Football League games on ESPN in the United States. From 1970 to 2005, it aired on sister broadcast network ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest-running prime time program ever on commercial network television, and one of the highest-rated, particularly among male viewers. Monday Night Football is also broadcast in Canada on TSN and RDS, and in most of Europe on ESPN America. On September 7, 2013, the NFL announced that British Eurosport would show Monday Night Football games live in the United Kingdom for the 2013 and 2014 seasons. The telecasts are also seen in most of Australia on ESPN Australia, in Portugal on SportTV 3 and SportTV HD and on TV 2 Sport in Denmark, and in some other regions of the world outside the U.S. on ESPN International. A Spanish-language version airs on ESPN Deportes in the U.S. and on ESPN International in Latin America, while a Portuguese version airs on ESPN Brasil.
- #170 of 302 onThe Best TV Shows Of The Past 20 Years
- #110 of 343 onThe Best TV Theme Songs of All Time
- #7 of 38 onYou May Be a Basic Bro If You Love These TV Shows
- 6Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson, Steve KerrChronicling Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls' quest for a sixth NBA championship in 1998.More The Last Dance
- #3 of 84 onThe Best Basketball Documentaries Of All Time
- #2 of 10 onThe Best TV Shows About Basketball
- #1 of 32 onThe Best NBA Documentaries Of All Time
- 7Joe Theismann, Suzy KolberESPN Sunday Night Football was the ESPN cable network's weekly television broadcasts of Sunday evening National Football League games. The first ESPN Sunday night broadcast occurred on November 8, 1987, while the last one aired on January 1, 2006. Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue credits ESPN with raising the "profile" of the league, from turning "a potential six- or seven-hour television experience into a twelve-hour television experience."
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ESPN College Football Saturday Primetime
Todd Blackledge, Bob Davie, Adrian KarstenESPN College Football Primetime is a live game presentation of Division 1-A college football on ESPN. In the past, the presenting sponsors have been Polaroid and AT&T. The current presenting sponsor is Hampton Hotels. The game telecast airs every Saturday night at 7:45pm ET during the college football regular season. The game is preceded by a 45 minute long College Football Scoreboard with Rece Davis, Lou Holtz and Mark May, all of whom also appear on the halftime report. This game telecast is also presented in high-definition on ESPN HD. - 9Tony Reali, Woody Paige, Tim CowlishawAround the Horn is a sports roundtable discussion show conducted in the style of a panel game that is produced by ESPN. The show premiered on November 4, 2002 as a replacement for Unscripted with Chris Connelly and has aired daily at 5 pm Eastern on ESPN ever since. ATH is recorded in New York City as of September 8, 2014. Prior to that the program emanated from Washington, D.C., where it was located in the same studio as Pardon the Interruption. The moderator for ATH is Tony Reali. He has hosted the program since 2004, and until the relocation to New York, Reali pulled double duty as the statistician on PTI.More Around the Horn
- #205 of 206 onThe 150+ Most Popular Shows Right Now
- #29 of 38 onYou May Be a Basic Bro If You Love These TV Shows
- #10 of 28 onThe 25+ Best ESPN Sports Talk Shows, Ranked
- 10Mike Ditka, Cris Carter, Ron JaworskiSunday NFL Countdown is a pregame show of all the NFL action for that week. The official name is Sunday NFL Countdown presented by Snickers. The show airs on ESPN, ESPN HD, TSN and TSN HD from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern time every Sunday during the National Football League regular season. In Europe it is aired by ESPN America. It is very similar to The NFL Today on CBS and Fox NFL Sunday, which airs on Fox. The show's former names include NFL GameDay from 1985 to 1995, NFL Countdown from 1996 to 1997, and since 1998, Sunday NFL Countdown. In 2006, the program introduced new graphics and a new logo to resemble the network's Monday Night Football logo. Chris Berman has been the studio host for the show's entire run. Jack Youngblood was the first analyst. In 1987, he was replaced by Pete Axthelm and Tom Jackson. The show's awards include seven Sports Emmy Awards for Outstanding Weekly Show and five CableACE Awards. On September 7, 2014 - coincidentally, the 35th anniversary of ESPN's launch - Sunday NFL Countdown debuted a brand-new studio inside Digital Center 2 of ESPN's main facilities in Bristol.
- 11Stephen A. SmithFirst Take is an American morning sports talk program on ESPN2 and ESPN2HD. Two back-to-back two-hour episodes air each weekday from Monday through Friday, with the live episode airing from 10 a.m. ET until noon, followed by a repeat. The show is broadcast from ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut in Studio E. The entire show, without commercials, is available as an audio-only podcast the afternoon of the same day, following the broadcast of the recorded show.More First Take
- #13 of 34 onThe Best Morning Shows
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- 12Jalen Rose, Bob Knight, Rece DavisCollege GameDay is an ESPN program that covers college basketball and is a spin-off of the successful college football version. Since debuting on January 22, 2005, it airs on ESPN Saturdays in the college basketball season at 11am ET and 8pm ET at a different game site each week. One difference between the two versions is that the college basketball version always appears at the ESPN Saturday Primetime game location, which is the ESPN college basketball game of the week and appears at 9pm ET Saturdays on ESPN. This program has also appeared at the site of the Final Four. The first two years of the show, it went to seven sites in seven weeks, but starting in 2007, it has been expanded to eight sites in eight weeks. The official name of the show is College GameDay Covered by State Farm. In 2005, the host of the show the first four weeks was Rece Davis, but then the last four weeks Chris Fowler hosted the show, but since 2006, Rece Davis has been the exclusive host of the show. Since the show debuted, Davis has been joined by Digger Phelps, Jay Bilas and since 2007, Hubert Davis has been on the team on the set with Dick Vitale contributing.
- 13Steve Young, Mike Ditka, Cris CarterMonday Night Countdown, which debuted in 1993 on ESPN, is a television program featuring analysis and news on that night's NFL match to be broadcast on ESPN. The show was originally titled NFL Prime Monday from 1993-97 before it was renamed Monday Night Countdown in 1998. The official name of the show is Monday Night Countdown served by Applebee's. The show's previous sponsor was UPS. When it debuted, it was one of the first cross-pollinations between ESPN and ABC Sports, which each largely operated under separate management at the time.
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College Football Final
Lou Holtz, Mark May, Chris FowlerCollege Football Final is a one hour program totally devoted to college football and airs every Saturday night during the college football season. It was previously named College Gameday Final until 2006. It is seen at 12am ET on ESPN and lasts until 1am ET and the program re-airs early the next morning on ESPNU and ESPN2. It is similar to ESPN's Baseball Tonight, NBA Fastbreak, NFL Live, and College GameNight, except that it only appears once a week. The program breaks down the days' games with highlights of all the biggest games, analysis of the big stories and a look ahead to next weeks' matchups. The host of College Football Final, since 1999, is ESPN sportscasting veteran Rece Davis. Joining Davis with analysis are College Football Hall of Fame Pittsburgh offensive lineman Mark May and head coach Lou Holtz. Davis, Holtz, and May also appear all day long during halftime reports and College Football Scoreboard. Trev Alberts, who was a former analyst on the show, resigned after the 2004 season saying, he was tired of being second to the College GameDay gang all the time; Holtz later replaced him. - 15John Kruk, Orel Hershiser, Tino MartinezBaseball Tonight is a program that airs on ESPN. The show, which recapitulates the day's Major League Baseball action, has been on the air since 1990. Its namesake program also airs on ESPN Radio at various times of the day during the baseball season, with Marc Kestecher as host. Baseball Tonight is also the title of a daily podcast hosted by Buster Olney with frequent appearances by Jayson Stark and Tim Kurkjian.
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NBA on ESPN
The NBA on ESPN refers to the presentation of National Basketball Association games on the ESPN family of networks. The ESPN cable network first televised NBA games from 1983 to 1984, and has been airing games currently since the 2002–03 NBA season. ESPN2 began airing a limited schedule of NBA games in 2002. ESPN on ABC began televising NBA games in 2006. On October 6, 2014, ESPN and the NBA renewed their agreement through 2025. - 17Bob Griese, Doug Flutie, Desmond HowardCollege Football Live is a show that airs weekdays on ESPN or ESPN2, and ESPNU. Its premiere was on Monday, July 23, 2007. Rece Davis is the lead host, but it also features ESPN college football analysts Kirk Herbstreit, Jesse Palmer, Trevor Matich, Andre Ware, and others. College Football Live also features Live interviews with college coaches and players via the "Direct TV Mobile Studio".
- 18Lisa Salters, Jeremy SchaapE:60 (ESPN, 2007) is an American sports newsmagazine and sports news documentary television series. The show features investigative journalism, focusing upon news, issues, and other stories in sports. It is a 2013 Telly Award winning TV program.
- 19Gonzalo Le Batard, Dan Le BatardHighly Questionable is a daily sports talk television program that airs daily on ESPN at 4:30 PM Eastern. Created as a vehicle for Miami Herald sportswriter and ESPN contributor Dan Le Batard, the show premiered on September 12, 2011. From its premiere until May 2013, the show bore Le Batard's name and was called Dan LeBatard Is Highly Questionable, and from its premiere until March 25, 2015 the show aired on ESPN2 at 4:00 PM Eastern. The program is based in Le Batard's hometown of Miami, Florida and was created by the same people behind Pardon The Interruption, which Le Batard has appeared on multiple times as a substitute host. Since May 13, 2013, the show is hosted by Le Batard, his father Gonzalo "Papi" Le Batard, and fellow ESPN contributor Bomani Jones. Jones, a former North Carolina-based radio show host, was a frequent contributor to the program and Le Batard's daily radio show and moved full-time to Miami to contribute to Highly Questionable. Pablo S. Torre is the show's designated substitute host. Highly Questionable is recorded on location at The Clevelander Hotel in South Beach, where Le Batard's radio show is also broadcast from.
- 20Bob Ley, Jeremy SchaapESPN Outside the Lines Sunday is a TV program.
- 21Michelle BeadleSportsNation is a sports-related television program that airs on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNews. The series is based on SportsNation, the fan forum and poll section of ESPN.com. The show is typically 60% material generated or suggested by fans, including videos from the internet, athlete Tweets, and online polling. The show had aired in occasional segments on ESPN and ESPN2 before becoming a fixture of ESPN2's weekday afternoon block in September 2011. As of April 2014, the SportsNation hosts are Michelle Beadle, Max Kellerman and Marcellus Wiley and is produced at ESPN's Los Angeles studios. From July 6, 2009 until December 20, 2012, SportsNation was taped at ESPN's world headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. The initial hosts were Colin Cowherd, who hosts the ESPN Radio midday program The Herd with Colin Cowherd, and Michelle Beadle, who joined ESPN from the YES Network. On June 1, 2012, Beadle left to join the NBC family of networks as a sports and entertainment contributor and was replaced by Numbers Never Lie host Charissa Thompson. Cowherd announced his departure from SportsNation in September 2012 to focus more on his radio work, and his final episode aired on December 21, 2012.
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College Football Scoreboard
Lou Holtz, Robert Smith, Mark MayCollege Football Scoreboard is a program on ESPN and ESPN2 that provies up to the minute scores and highlights during the college football season. The official name is College Football Scoreboard presented by Acura. The name of the show was College Gameday Scoreboard up until 2006. It airs four times a day at 3 p.m. ET and 7 p.m. ET on ESPN and at 3 p.m. ET and at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The 3 p.m. ET programs on both networks are thirty minutes long and the 7 p.m. ET programs on both networks lead up to College Football Primetime. The ESPN College Football Scoreboard is hosted by Rece Davis along with analysis from Lou Holtz and Mark May. They also appear later that night on College Football Final at 12 a.m. ET. The ESPN2 version is hosted by Wendi Nix with analysis from Todd McShay and Robert Smith. Both College GameDay Scoreboard groups also provide the half time reports, post game reports and live in game updates from games around the country. The 7 p.m. ET versions, for both ESPN and ESPN2, lead up to ESPN College Football Primetime, which begins immediately following the show at 7:45 p.m. ET. - 23Tony Kornheiser, Michael Wilbon, Mike LupicaThe Sports Reporters is a sports talk show that airs on ESPN at 9:30 a.m. ET every Sunday morning. It is broadcast from Bristol, Connecticut at the main ESPN studios. However, before 1999, it was broadcast from a studio in Manhattan. and from 1999-2010 it was recorded at the ESPN Zone at Times Square in Manhattan before it closed. The format of the show is a roundtable discussion among four sports media personalities, with one regular host and three rotating guests. The show began in 1988, patterned to some extent after the successful Chicago-based syndicated show called Sportswriters on TV.
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NFL Matchup
Ron JaworskiNFL Matchup is a National Football League preview show that airs every week during the regular season and playoffs. As of 2006, the official name is State Farm NFL Matchup, and it is produced by NFL Films. As of the 2008-2009 NFL season, it airs every Sunday during the season on ESPN at 3:00am ET, then re-airs at 7:30am ET. - 25
ESPN College Football Thursday Primetime
Jenn Brown, Chris Fowler, Craig JamesESPN College Football Primetime is a live game presentation of Division 1-A college football on ESPN. In the past, the presenting sponsor was Cooper Tires, but since the 2006 season, the current presenting sponsor is Applebee's. The game telecast airs every Thursday night at 7:45pm ET during the college football regular season. The game is preceded by a 30 minute segment with Scott Van Pelt, Brian Griese and Mark May, all of whom also appear on the halftime report. This game telecast is also presented in high definition on ESPNHD. It has broadcast games from numerous conferences including the SEC, ACC and the Big East. This game is often seen as the ESPN Game of the Week along with the Saturday night telecast. The most visible voices of ESPN College Football Primetime over the years have been Mike Tirico, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso, but none remain in the booth, with Tirico and Herbstreit being promoted and Corso cutting back on his schedule. The current commentators are Rece Davis on play-by-play, Jesse Palmer as analyst, David Pollack as analyst and Samantha Ponder as field reporter. - 26Jim Kaat, Al Leiter, Bob CostasThursday Night Baseball is the title of a presentation of Major League Baseball on cable and satellite channel MLB Network, that premiered on April 9, 2009. Longtime NBC Sports broadcaster Bob Costas is one of the play-by-play voices of the broadcasts. Matt Vasgersian also does play-by-play on some games. Al Leiter, Joe Magrane, Dan Plesac, Harold Reynolds, Mitch Williams and Jim Kaat provide color commentary. The new network produces 26 non-exclusive live games a year on Thursday nights. Since one or both teams' local TV rights holders also carry the games, the MLB Network feed is subject to local blackouts. In that event, the cities in the blacked-out markets will instead see a simulcast of another scheduled game via one team's local TV rights holder.
- 27Buster Olney, Jon Miller, Dan ShulmanSunday Night Baseball is an exclusive weekly telecast of a Major League Baseball game that airs Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN during the regular season. The games are preceded most weeks by the studio show Baseball Tonight. Both Baseball Tonight and Sunday Night Baseball are also televised in high definition on ESPNHD. A few telecasts each season appear on ESPN2 rather than ESPN due to conflicts with other programming.
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ESPN2 College Football Friday Primetime
Dave Flemming, Louis Riddick, Jim MoraESPN2 College Football Friday Primetime is a live game presentation of Division 1-A college football on ESPN2 or sometimes ESPN. There is no main sponsor. The game telecast airs every Friday night at 7:45pm ET during the college football regular season. In 2014, the games will be announced by Dave Flemming and Danny Kanell. The game is preceded by a 5-10 minute long segment of College Football Scoreboard with Chris Cotter, Lou Holtz and Mark May They both also present the Pontiac Performance Halftime Report. Since debuting in 2004, it has broadcast games from numerous conferences including the SEC, ACC, Big Ten and the Big East. The biggest game for this package occurred on September 28, 2007, when the at the time fifth-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers took on the eighteenth-ranked South Florida Bulls. The game drew a 2.7 rating, the second highest since ESPN2 began televising college football. - 29Suzy Kolber, Adam SchefterNFL Insiders (ESPN, 2013) is an American National Football League studio television show. Multiple segments look at headlines, highlights and stats of NFL games and players.
- 30Skip Bayless, Bonnie-Jill Laflin, Woody PaigeCold Pizza was a television sports morning talk show that aired weekdays on ESPN2. The show's style was more akin to Good Morning America than SportsCenter 's straight news and highlights format. It included daily sports news, interviews with sports journalists, athletes, and personalities, and an assortment of other sports and non-sports topics. This show began airing on October 20, 2003. The ESPN executive in charge of the program was James Cohen, who helped develop ESPN's popular talk show, Pardon the Interruption. The show was part of ESPN Original Entertainment overseen by ESPN programming chief Mark Shapiro The executive producer/creator was Brian Donlon and he was assisted by Consulting Producer Steve Friedman, who oversaw NBC's Today Show during some of its most innovative and highly rated periods. The program was produced at Atlantic Video which was overseen by Todd Mason. The original co-hosts hosts were Jay Crawford and Kit Hoover with Thea Andrews serving as correspondent and Leslie Maxie as the news anchor.
