History Creator / ESPN

Their ''30 For 30'' series, a series of 30 documentaries on varying subjects, originally created in 2009 in celebration of ESPN's 30th anniversary by columnist BillSimmons, has been critically acclaimed, and as of 2015 is now in its third season. [[note]] Simmons, however, was let go by ESPN in May 2015, and the website ''Grantland'' he curated was also shut down a few months later. [[/note]] The five-part ''30 for 30'' documentary ''Series/OJMadeInAmerica'' ran for a week in a Santa Monica theater before it aired on ESPN, a decision that allowed the series to win the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDocumentaryFeature.

Their ''30 For 30'' series, a series of 30 documentaries on varying subjects, originally created in 2009 in celebration of ESPN's 30th anniversary by columnist BillSimmons, has been critically acclaimed, and as of 2015 is now in its third season. [[note]] Simmons, however, was let go by ESPN in May 2015, and the website ''Grantland'' he curated was also shut down a few months later. [[/note]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_espn-red-logo-large_9965.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The Worldwide Leader in Sports]]

ESPN and its many affiliated networks, [=ESPN2, ESPNews=], [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment ESPN Deportes]] (Spanish-language), ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN Plus (which syndicates sports events to local TV stations), ESPN America (a European network that shows US and Canadian sports), ESPN UK (which scored a slice of the domestic English Premiership after the demise of Setanta Sports-- Craig Ferguson's dream come true!), TSN (Canada's English-language ESPN), RDS (Canada's French-language ESPN) and ESPN 3D, along with online affiliate [[strike:ESPN360.com]] [=ESPN3.com=], broadcast sports and sports news around the world. (Yes, even ESPN Classic has the occasional live broadcast, usually when there are so many games going on at once that there wouldn't be enough space otherwise--like the end of the college football season. Also the aforementioned 50-year-old Roger Clemens' first start for the Sugar Land Skeeters.)

They ''do'', however, shamelessly shill for the superstar athletes, including breaking into coverage in order to show live look-ins at Barry Bonds's at-bats when he was chasing Hank Aaron's record, doing the same thing with Manny Ramirez's ''rehab appearances in the minors'' when coming back from a 50-game suspension for PED use, actively televising Roger Clemens's minor league rehab starts when he decided to un-retire midseason and then his starts for an ''independent'' minor league team when he tried to unretire at age 50 to delay his Hall of Fame eligibility an additional 5 years, and letting [=LeBron=] James spend an hour telling us which team he'll play for in the next year, something done by every other athlete and team via a one-page press release.

ESPN and its many affiliated networks, [=ESPN2, ESPNews=], [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment ESPN Deportes]], ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN Plus (which syndicates sports events to local TV stations), ESPN America (a European network that shows US and Canadian sports), ESPN UK (which scored a slice of the domestic English Premiership after the demise of Setanta Sports-- Craig Ferguson's dream come true!), TSN (Canada's ESPN) and ESPN 3D, along with online affiliate [[strike:ESPN360.com]] [=ESPN3.com=], broadcast sports and sports news around the world. (Yes, even ESPN Classic has the occasional live broadcast, usually when there are so many games going on at once that there wouldn't be enough space otherwise--like the end of the college football season. Also the aforementioned 50-year-old Roger Clemens' first start for the Sugar Land Skeeters.)

ESPN, which stands for the '''E'''ntertainment and '''S'''ports '''P'''rogramming '''N'''etwork, premiered in 1979 as the USA's first 24-hour sports network, and as a network dedicated solely to the sports fan, they have never [[Creator/{{NBC}} interrupted a game for regularly scheduled programming, interrupted a]] ''[[Creator/{{NBC}} playoff]]'' [[Creator/{{NBC}} game for pre-race coverage of the Kentucky Derby,]] [[{{FOX}} or carried multiple games at the same time while blacking out every out-of-market game being played at the time, regardless of whether or not it was one of the games they were carrying]]. They ''do'', however, shamelessly shill for the superstar athletes, including breaking into coverage in order to show live look-ins at Barry Bonds's at-bats when he was chasing Hank Aaron's record, doing the same thing with Manny Ramirez's ''rehab appearances in the minors'' when coming back from a 50-game suspension for PED use, actively televising Roger Clemens's minor league rehab starts when he decided to un-retire midseason and then his starts for an ''independent'' minor league team when he tried to unretire at age 50 to delay his Hall of Fame eligibility an additional 5 years, and letting [=LeBron=] James spend an hour telling us which team he'll play for in the next year, something done by every other athlete and team via a one-page press release. They are often accused of being biased towards teams from certain regions--usually the Boston and New York teams, perhaps understandable due to their Connecticut home (a common nickname for ESPN is the Eastern Sports Promotion Network), but also the L.A. Dodgers, the L.A. Lakers, USC, the Cubs, the Heat, sports that are not hockey, and whatever team Brett Favre decided to play for. There is a series of memes depicting them as the Tim Tebow network. But enough about their common criticisms...

ESPN and its many affiliated networks, [=ESPN2, ESPNews=], [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment ESPN Deportes]], ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN Plus (which syndicates sports events to local TV stations), ESPN America (a European network that shows US and Canadian sports), ESPN UK (which scored a slice of the domestic English Premiership after the demise of Setanta Sports-- Craig Ferguson's dream come true!), TSN (Canada's ESPN) and ESPN 3D, along with online affiliate [[strike:ESPN360.com]] [=ESPN3.com=], broadcast sports and sports news around the world. (Yes, even ESPN Classic has the occasional live broadcast, usually when there are so many games going on at once that there wouldn't be enough space otherwise--like the end of the college football season. Also the aforementioned 50-year-old Roger Clemens' first start for the Sugar Land Skeeters.) They currently hold the broadcast rights to MondayNightFootball, one baseball game a week on Sunday nights (exclusive; they also simulcast other games that are also broadcast on the teams' regional sports networks), 4 NBA games a week (or was it six?), the World Series of Poker, and the majority of college sports including all but one college football bowl game. [[labelnote:*]]The Sun Bowl is on CBS.[[/labelnote]] Also most of the early rounds of major tennis tournaments (and almost all of the Australian and French Opens, shared with Tennis Channel), the entirety of the World Baseball Classic, and, under the umbrella title ''ESPN on ABC'', any sporting event broadcast on Creator/{{ABC}}, a sister company under the grand unifying banner of [[Creator/{{Disney}} the Walt Disney Company]]--and yes, this includes the [[SeriousBusiness later rounds of the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee]], the earlier rounds of which are broadcast on ESPN. [=ESPN2=] used to broadcast even ''more'' obscure stuff in its early years, most notably ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' tournaments (yes, seriously), perhaps keying in on the "E" in ESPN, but in recent years has become more mainstream, which means obscure sports will have to find a new home, like [[{{Dodgeball}} the Ocho]]. (Incidentally, ESPN originally was conceived as a 24-hour version of ABC's WideWorldOfSports. And then, so was [=ESPN2=].)

ESPN's signature show is ''Series/SportsCenter'', which has been running multiple episodes per night since the network launched in September of 1979. [[LongRunners This means there are over 30,000 episodes of]] ''[=SportsCenter=]'', primarily of the hour-long variety, and more commonly longer than shorter. Specialized versions of [=SportsCenter=] for other major sports are common, most notably ''Baseball Tonight'', ''NBA Fastbreak'', ''College [=GameDay=]'' (football and basketball-flavored), and ''NFL Countdown'' (Sunday and Monday versions). Other shows include ''Mike and Mike In the Morning'' (Simulcast with ESPN Radio), ''ESPN First Take'' (formerly ''Cold Pizza''), ''Series/JimRomeIsBurning'' (until it ended), ''Series/AroundTheHorn'', ''Series/PardonTheInterruption'', ''Series/SportsNation'', ''Series/NumbersNeverLie'' and ''Series/DanLeBatardIsHighlyQuestionable'', which are eight different varieties of having people [[LargeHam spouting off sports opinions]] [[NoIndoorVoice in loud voices]], which is probably the ''coolest job ever''. (Add in ''ESPN Radio'''s lineup with Mike & Mike, The Herd, SVP and Rusillo, The Dan [=LeBatard=] Show, and Sedano & Stink, and you've got thirteen.) However, there are limits to how loud and abrasive you're allowed to be in opinionating, as evidenced by the failure of ''Quite Frankly with Steven A. Smith'' (which also means Jim Rome must have mellowed out some from his days of provoking fights by equating football players to tennis players). Liberal political commentator KeithOlbermann got his start as a [=SportsCenter=] anchor (and returned to do his own sports show in 2013). Former late-night talk show host Craig Kilborn is also an ESPN alum, as are ''Series/GoodMorningAmerica'' anchors Robin Roberts and Josh Elliott. Other sports networks also host ESPN alumni (Dave Revsine and Mike Hall on the Big Ten Network, to name a couple...and Hall got his job on ESPN by winning ''Dream Job'', an [[ContestWinnerCameo ESPN reality show]].)

In the early 00s, ESPN opened up an Original Entertainment wing, for original movies and tv shows. This led to the short-lived cult poker themed series ''Tilt'' and the brilliant football themed series ''Playmakers'', which sadly was canceled because pressure from the NFL (the league was not happy with the way the show featured the seedier side of professional football). The backlash from the cancellation of ''Playmakers'', along with the bombing of ''Tilt'', killed any hopes of further series as critics accused ESPN of caving to pressure, resulting in them refocusing their efforts into TV movies ( ''A Season on the Brink'' (about Bobby Knight, who is now an ESPN analyst), ''The Junction Boys'' (about Paul "Bear" Bryant's first summer at Texas A&M), ''3: The Dale Earnhardt Story'' ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Self-explanatory]]),) as well as mini-serieses such as ''The Bronx is Burning'' (A miniseries about the Yankees' turbulent 1977 season), and ''Four Minutes'' (about Roger Bannister running the first 4-minute mile in 1954). Their "30 for 30" series, created by columnist BillSimmons and featuring 30 short films on a variety of subjects, done by professional filmmakers, has been critically acclaimed.

->''This article has been a presentation of ESPN, the Worldwide Leader in Sports. For more information, visit [[http://www.espn.com ESPN.com]].''

ESPN also has their own magazine, published every other week since 1998. It generally takes a more humorous approach than other sporting magazines, and even managed to snag Rick Reilly away from ''Magazine/SportsIllustrated'' in order to facilitate this, although ''SI'' managed to exact ''some'' measure of revenge by grabbing longtime ESPN personality Dan Patrick. Still, judging by the state of the back page of ''SI'' since Reilly left, it seems ESPN got the better end of the deal. (Speaking of deals, when ''Monday Night Football'' moved from Creator/{{ABC}} to ESPN, Disney traded Al "Do You Believe In Miracles?" Michaels to NBC Universal for the rights to an old WaltDisney character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, something he found amusing. Again, all true, and Oswald's return to the fold is being marked by a prominent part in ''VideoGame/EpicMickey''.)

ESPN and its many affiliated networks, [=ESPN2, ESPNews=], [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment ESPN Deportes]], ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN Plus (which syndicates sports events to local TV stations), ESPN America (a European network that shows US and Canadian sports), ESPN UK (which scored a slice of the domestic English Premiership after the demise of Setanta Sports-- Craig Ferguson's dream come true!), TSN (Canada's ESPN) and ESPN 3D, along with online affiliate [[strike:ESPN360.com]] [=ESPN3.com=], broadcast sports and sports news around the world. (Yes, even ESPN Classic has the occasional live broadcast, usually when there are so many games going on at once that there wouldn't be enough space otherwise--like the end of the college football season. Also the aforementioned 50-year-old Roger Clemens' first start for the Sugar Land Skeeters.) They currently hold the broadcast rights to MondayNightFootball, one baseball game a week on Sunday nights (exclusive; they also simulcast other games that are also broadcast on the teams' regional sports networks), 4 NBA games a week (or was it six?), the World Series of Poker, and the majority of college sports including all but two college football bowl games. [[labelnote:*]]The Cotton Bowl is on Fox, and the Sun Bowl is on CBS.[[/labelnote]] Also most of the early rounds of major tennis tournaments (and almost all of the Australian and French Opens, shared with Tennis Channel), the entirety of the World Baseball Classic, and, under the umbrella title ''ESPN on ABC'', any sporting event broadcast on Creator/{{ABC}}, a sister company under the grand unifying banner of [[Creator/{{Disney}} the Walt Disney Company]]--and yes, this includes the [[SeriousBusiness later rounds of the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee]], the earlier rounds of which are broadcast on ESPN. [=ESPN2=] used to broadcast even ''more'' obscure stuff in its early years, most notably ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' tournaments (yes, seriously), perhaps keying in on the "E" in ESPN, but in recent years has become more mainstream, which means obscure sports will have to find a new home, like [[{{Dodgeball}} the Ocho]]. (Incidentally, ESPN originally was conceived as a 24-hour version of ABC's WideWorldOfSports. And then, so was [=ESPN2=].)

ESPN and its many affiliated networks, [=ESPN2, ESPNews=], [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment ESPN Deportes]], ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN Plus (which syndicates sports events to local TV stations), ESPN America (a European network that shows US and Canadian sports), ESPN UK (which scored a slice of the domestic English Premiership after the demise of Setanta Sports-- Craig Ferguson's dream come true!), TSN (Canada's ESPN) and ESPN 3D, along with online affiliate [[strike:ESPN360.com]] [=ESPN3.com=], broadcast sports and sports news around the world. (Yes, even ESPN Classic has the occasional live broadcast, usually when there are so many games going on at once that there wouldn't be enough space otherwise--like the end of the college football season. Also the aforementioned 50-year-old Roger Clemens' first start for the Sugar Land Skeeters.) They currently hold the broadcast rights to MondayNightFootball, one baseball game a week on Sunday nights (exclusive; they also simulcast other games that are also broadcast on the teams' regional sports networks), 4 NBA games a week (or was it six?), the World Series of Poker, and the majority of college sports including all but two college football bowl games[[labelnote:*]]The Cotton Bowl is on Fox, and the Sun Bowl is on CBS.[[/labelnote]]. Also most of the early rounds of major tennis tournaments (and almost all of the Australian and French Opens, shared with Tennis Channel), the entirety of the World Baseball Classic, and, under the umbrella title ''ESPN on ABC'', any sporting event broadcast on Creator/{{ABC}}, a sister company under the grand unifying banner of [[Creator/{{Disney}} the Walt Disney Company]]--and yes, this includes the [[SeriousBusiness later rounds of the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee]], the earlier rounds of which are broadcast on ESPN. [=ESPN2=] used to broadcast even ''more'' obscure stuff in its early years, most notably ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' tournaments (yes, seriously), perhaps keying in on the "E" in ESPN, but in recent years has become more mainstream, which means obscure sports will have to find a new home, like [[{{Dodgeball}} the Ocho]]. (Incidentally, ESPN originally was conceived as a 24-hour version of ABC's WideWorldOfSports. And then, so was [=ESPN2=].)

ESPN and its many affiliated networks, [=ESPN2, ESPNews=], [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment ESPN Deportes]], ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN Plus (which syndicates sports events to local TV stations), ESPN America (a European network that shows US and Canadian sports), ESPN UK (which scored a slice of the domestic English Premiership after the demise of Setanta Sports-- Craig Ferguson's dream come true!), TSN (Canada's ESPN) and ESPN 3D, along with online affiliate [[strike:ESPN360.com]] [=ESPN3.com=], broadcast sports and sports news around the world. (Yes, even ESPN Classic has the occasional live broadcast, usually when there are so many games going on at once that there wouldn't be enough space otherwise--like the end of the college football season. Also the aforementioned 50-year-old Roger Clemens' first start for the Sugar Land Skeeters.) They currently hold the broadcast rights to MondayNightFootball, one baseball game a week on Sunday nights (exclusive; they also simulcast other games that are also broadcast on the teams' regional sports networks), 4 NBA games a week (or was it six?), the World Series of Poker, and the majority of college sports including all but two college football bowl games. Also most of the early rounds of major tennis tournaments (and almost all of the Australian and French Opens, shared with Tennis Channel), the entirety of the World Baseball Classic, and, under the umbrella title ''ESPN on ABC'', any sporting event broadcast on Creator/{{ABC}}, a sister company under the grand unifying banner of [[Creator/{{Disney}} the Walt Disney Company]]--and yes, this includes the [[SeriousBusiness later rounds of the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee]], the earlier rounds of which are broadcast on ESPN. [=ESPN2=] used to broadcast even ''more'' obscure stuff in its early years, most notably ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' tournaments (yes, seriously), perhaps keying in on the "E" in ESPN, but in recent years has become more mainstream, which means obscure sports will have to find a new home, like [[{{Dodgeball}} the Ocho]]. (Incidentally, ESPN originally was conceived as a 24-hour version of ABC's WideWorldOfSports. And then, so was [=ESPN2=].)

ESPN's signature show is ''Series/SportsCenter'', which has been running multiple episodes per night since the network launched in September of 1979. [[LongRunners This means there are over 30,000 episodes of]] ''[=SportsCenter=]'', primarily of the hour-long variety, and more commonly longer than shorter. Specialized versions of [=SportsCenter=] for other major sports are common, most notably ''Baseball Tonight'', ''NBA Fastbreak'', ''College [=GameDay=]'' (football and basketball-flavored), and ''NFL Countdown'' (Sunday and Monday versions). Other shows include ''Mike and Mike In the Morning'' (Simulcast with ESPN Radio), ''ESPN First Take'' (formerly ''Cold Pizza''), ''Series/JimRomeIsBurning'' (until it ended), ''Series/AroundTheHorn'', ''Series/PardonTheInterruption'', ''Series/SportsNation'', ''Series/NumbersNeverLie'' and ''Series/DanLeBatardIsHighlyQuestionable'', which are eight different varieties of having people [[LargeHam spouting off sports opinions]] [[NoIndoorVoice in loud voices]], which is probably the ''coolest job ever''. (Add in ''ESPN Radio'''s lineup with Mike & Mike, The Herd, SVP and Rusillo, The Dan [=LeBatard=] Show, and Sedano & Stink, and you've got thirteen.) However, there are limits to how loud and abrasive you're allowed to be in opinionating, as evidenced by the failure of ''Quite Frankly with Steven A. Smith'' (which also means Jim Rome must have mellowed out some from his days of provoking fights by equating football players to tennis players). Liberal political commentator KeithOlbermann got his start as a [=SportsCenter=] anchor (and returned to do his own sports show in 2013). Former late-night talk show host Craig Kilborn is also an ESPN alum, as are ''Series/GoodMorningAmerica'' anchors Robin Roberts and Josh Elliott.

ESPN, which stands for the '''E'''ntertainment and '''S'''ports '''P'''rogramming '''N'''etwork, was the USA's first 24-hour sports network, and as a network dedicated solely to the sports fan, they have never [[Creator/{{NBC}} interrupted a game for regularly scheduled programming, interrupted a]] ''[[Creator/{{NBC}} playoff]]'' [[Creator/{{NBC}} game for pre-race coverage of the Kentucky Derby,]] [[{{FOX}} or carried multiple games at the same time while blacking out every out-of-market game being played at the time, regardless of whether or not it was one of the games they were carrying]]. They ''do'', however, shamelessly shill for the superstar athletes, including breaking into coverage in order to show live look-ins at Barry Bonds's at-bats when he was chasing Hank Aaron's record, doing the same thing with Manny Ramirez's ''rehab appearances in the minors'' when coming back from a 50-game suspension for PED use, actively televising Roger Clemens's minor league rehab starts when he decided to un-retire midseason and then his starts for an ''independent'' minor league team when he tried to unretire at age 50 to delay his Hall of Fame eligibility an additional 5 years, and letting [=LeBron=] James spend an hour telling us which team he'll play for in the next year, something done by every other athlete and team via a one-page press release. They are often accused of being biased towards teams from certain regions--usually the Boston and New York teams, perhaps understandable due to their Connecticut home (a common nickname for ESPN is the Eastern Sports Promotion Network), but also the L.A. Dodgers, the L.A. Lakers, USC, the Cubs, the Heat, sports that are not hockey, and whatever team Brett Favre decided to play for. There is a series of memes depicting them as the Tim Tebow network. But enough about their common criticisms...

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/200px-ESPN_wordmark.svg.png
[[caption-width:200:The Worldwide Leader in Sports]]

ESPN and its many affiliated networks, [=ESPN2, ESPNews=], [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment ESPN Deportes]], ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN Plus (which syndicates sports events to local TV stations), ESPN America (a European network that shows US and Canadian sports), ESPN UK (which scored a slice of the domestic English Premiership after the demise of Setanta Sports-- Craig Ferguson's dream come true!), TSN (Canada's ESPN) and ESPN 3D, along with online affiliate [[strike:ESPN360.com]] [=ESPN3.com=], broadcast sports and sports news around the world. (Yes, even ESPN Classic has the occasional live broadcast, usually when there are so many games going on at once that there wouldn't be enough space otherwise--like the end of the college football season. Also the aforementioned 50-year-old Roger Clemens' first start for the Sugar Land Skeeters.) They currently hold the broadcast rights to MondayNightFootball, one baseball game a week on Sunday nights (exclusive; they also simulcast other games that are also broadcast on the teams' regional sports networks), 4 NBA games a week (or was it six?), the World Series of Poker, and the majority of college sports including all but two college football bowl games. Also most of the early rounds of major tennis tournaments (and almost all of the Australian and French Opens, shared with Tennis Channel), the entirety of the World Baseball Classic, and, under the umbrella title ''ESPN on ABC'', any sporting event broadcast on Creator/{{ABC}}, a sister company under the grand unifying banner of [[{{Disney}} the Walt Disney Company]]--and yes, this includes the [[SeriousBusiness later rounds of the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee]], the earlier rounds of which are broadcast on ESPN. [=ESPN2=] used to broadcast even ''more'' obscure stuff in its early years, most notably ''MagicTheGathering'' tournaments (yes, seriously), perhaps keying in on the "E" in ESPN, but in recent years has become more mainstream, which means obscure sports will have to find a new home, like [[{{Dodgeball}} the Ocho]]. (Incidentally, ESPN originally was conceived as a 24-hour version of ABC's WideWorldOfSports. And then, so was [=ESPN2=].)

ESPN's signature show is ''SportsCenter'', which has been running multiple episodes per night since the network launched in September of 1979. [[LongRunners This means there are over 30,000 episodes of]] ''SportsCenter'', primarily of the hour-long variety, and more commonly longer than shorter. Specialized versions of [=SportsCenter=] for other major sports are common, most notably ''Baseball Tonight'', ''NBA Fastbreak'', ''College [=GameDay=]'' (football and basketball-flavored), and ''NFL Countdown'' (Sunday and Monday versions). Other shows include ''Mike and Mike In the Morning'' (Simulcast with ESPN Radio), ''ESPN First Take'' (formerly ''Cold Pizza''), ''Series/JimRomeIsBurning'', ''Series/AroundTheHorn'', ''Series/PardonTheInterruption'', ''Series/SportsNation'', ''Series/NumbersNeverLie'' and ''Series/DanLeBatardIsHighlyQuestionable'', which are eight different varieties of having people [[LargeHam spouting off sports opinions]] [[NoIndoorVoice in loud voices]], which is probably the ''coolest job ever''. (Add in ''ESPN Radio'''s lineup with Mike & Mike, The Herd, SVP and Rusillo, The Dan LeBatard Show, and Sedano & Stink, and you've got thirteen.) However, there are limits to how loud and abrasive you're allowed to be in opinionating, as evidenced by the failure of ''Quite Frankly with Steven A. Smith'' (Which also means Jim Rome must have mellowed out some from his days of provoking fights by equating football players to tennis players). Liberal political commentator KeithOlbermann got his start as a [=SportsCenter=] anchor (and returned to do his own sports show in 2013). Former late-night talk show host Craig Kilborn is also an ESPN alum, as are ''Good Morning America'' anchors Robin Roberts and Josh Elliott.

ESPN also has their own magazine, published every other week since 1998. It generally takes a more humorous approach than other sporting magazines, and even managed to snag Rick Reilly away from ''Magazine/SportsIllustrated'' in order to facilitate this, although ''SI'' managed to exact ''some'' measure of revenge by grabbing longtime ESPN personality Dan Patrick. Still, judging by the state of the back page of ''SI'' since Reilly left, it seems ESPN got the better end of the deal. (Speaking of deals, when ''Monday Night Football'' moved from Creator/{{ABC}} to ESPN, Disney traded Al "Do You Believe In Miracles?" Michaels to NBC Universal for the rights to an old WaltDisney character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, something he found amusing. Again, all true, and Oswald's return to the fold is being marked by a prominent part in ''EpicMickey''.)

''This article has been a presentation of ESPN, the Worldwide Leader in Sports. For more information, visit [[http://www.espn.com ESPN.com]].''

ESPN's signature show is ''SportsCenter'', which has been running multiple episodes per night since the network launched in September of 1979. [[LongRunners This means there are over 30,000 episodes of]] ''SportsCenter'', primarily of the hour-long variety, and more commonly longer than shorter. Specialized versions of [=SportsCenter=] for other major sports are common, most notably ''Baseball Tonight'', ''NBA Fastbreak'', ''College [=GameDay=]'' (football and basketball-flavored), and ''NFL Countdown'' (Sunday and Monday versions). Other shows include ''Mike and Mike In the Morning'' (Simulcast with ESPN Radio), ''ESPN First Take'' (formerly ''Cold Pizza''), ''Series/JimRomeIsBurning'', ''Series/AroundTheHorn'', ''Series/PardonTheInterruption'', ''Series/SportsNation'', ''Series/NumbersNeverLie'' and ''Series/DanLeBatardIsHighlyQuestionable'', which are eight different varieties of having people [[LargeHam spouting off sports opinions]] [[NoIndoorVoice in loud voices]], which is probably the ''coolest job ever''. (Add in ''ESPN Radio'''s lineup with The Herd, SVP and Rusillo, Coach and Company, and Hill and Schlereth, and you've got twelve.) However, there are limits to how loud and abrasive you're allowed to be in opinionating, as evidenced by the failure of ''Quite Frankly with Steven A. Smith'' (Which also means Jim Rome must have mellowed out some from his days of provoking fights by equating football players to tennis players). Liberal political commentator KeithOlbermann got his start as a [=SportsCenter=] anchor (and returned to do his own sports show in 2013). Former late-night talk show host Craig Kilborn is also an ESPN alum, as are ''Good Morning America'' anchors Robin Roberts and Josh Elliott.

ESPN also has their own magazine, published every other week since 1998. It generally takes a more humorous approach than other sporting magazines, and even managed to snag Rick Reilly away from ''Magazine/SportsIllustrated'' in order to facilitate this, although ''SI'' managed to exact ''some'' measure of revenge by grabbing longtime ESPN personality Dan Patrick. Still, judging by the state of the back page of ''SI'' since Reilly left, it seems ESPN got the better end of the deal. (Speaking of deals, when ''Monday Night Football'' moved from Creator/{{ABC}} to ESPN, Disney traded Al "Do You Believe In Miracles?" Michaels to NBC for the rights to an old WaltDisney character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, something he found amusing. Again, all true, and Oswald's return to the fold is being marked by a prominent part in ''EpicMickey''.)

In the early 00s, ESPN opened up an Original Entertainment wing, for original movies and tv shows. This led to the short-lived cult poker themed series Tilt brilliant football themed series ''Playmakers'', which sadly was canceled because pressure from the NFL (the league was not happy with the way the show featured the seedier side of professional football). The backlash from the cancellation Playmakers killed any hopes of further series as critics accused ESPN of caving to pressure, resulting in them refocusing their efforts into TV movies ( ''A Season on the Brink'' (about Bobby Knight, who is now an ESPN analyst), ''The Junction Boys'' (about Paul "Bear" Bryant's first summer at Texas A&M), ''3: The Dale Earnhardt Story'' ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Self-explanatory]]),) as well as mini-serieses such as ''The Bronx is Burning'' (A miniseries about the Yankees' turbulent 1977 season), and ''Four Minutes'' (about Roger Bannister running the first 4-minute mile in 1954). Their "30 for 30" series, created by columnist BillSimmons and featuring 30 short films on a variety of subjects, done by professional filmmakers, has been critically acclaimed.

ESPN's signature show is ''SportsCenter'', which has been running multiple episodes per night since the network launched in September of 1979. [[LongRunners This means there are over 30,000 episodes of]] ''SportsCenter'', primarily of the hour-long variety, and more commonly longer than shorter. Specialized versions of [=SportsCenter=] for other major sports are common, most notably ''Baseball Tonight'', ''NBA Fastbreak'', ''College [=GameDay=]'' (football and basketball-flavored), and ''NFL Countdown'' (Sunday and Monday versions). Other shows include ''Mike and Mike In the Morning'' (Simulcast with ESPN Radio), ''ESPN First Take'' (formerly ''Cold Pizza''), ''Series/JimRomeIsBurning'', ''Series/AroundTheHorn'', ''Series/PardonTheInterruption'', ''Series/SportsNation'', ''Series/NumbersNeverLie'' and ''Series/DanLeBatardIsHighlyQuestionable'', which are eight different varieties of having people [[LargeHam spouting off sports opinions]] [[NoIndoorVoice in loud voices]], which is probably the ''coolest job ever''. (Add in ''ESPN Radio'''s lineup with The Herd, SVP and Rusillo, Coach and Company, and Hill and Schlereth, and you've got twelve.) However, there are limits to how loud and abrasive you're allowed to be in opinionating, as evidenced by the failure of ''Quite Frankly with Steven A. Smith'' (Which also means Jim Rome must have mellowed out some from his days of provoking fights by equating football players to tennis players). Liberal political commentator KeithOlbermann got his start as a [=SportsCenter=] anchor. Former late-night talk show host Craig Kilborn is also an ESPN alum, as are ''Good Morning America'' anchors Robin Roberts and Josh Elliott.

ESPN's signature show is ''SportsCenter'', which has been running multiple episodes per night since the network launched in September of 1979. [[LongRunners This means there are over 30,000 episodes of]] ''SportsCenter'', primarily of the hour-long variety, and more commonly longer than shorter. Specialized versions of [=SportsCenter=] for other major sports are common, most notably ''Baseball Tonight'', ''NBA Fastbreak'', ''College [=GameDay=]'' (football and basketball-flavored), and ''NFL Countdown'' (Sunday and Monday versions). Other shows include ''Mike and Mike In the Morning'' (Simulcast with ESPN Radio), ''ESPN First Take'' (formerly ''Cold Pizza''), ''Series/JimRomeIsBurning'', ''Series/AroundTheHorn'', ''Series/PardonTheInterruption'', ''Series/SportsNation'', ''NumbersNeverLie'' and ''Series/DanLeBatardIsHighlyQuestionable'', which are eight different varieties of having people [[LargeHam spouting off sports opinions]] [[NoIndoorVoice in loud voices]], which is probably the ''coolest job ever''. (Add in ''ESPN Radio'''s lineup with The Herd, SVP and Rusillo, Coach and Company, and Hill and Schlereth, and you've got twelve.) However, there are limits to how loud and abrasive you're allowed to be in opinionating, as evidenced by the failure of ''Quite Frankly with Steven A. Smith'' (Which also means Jim Rome must have mellowed out some from his days of provoking fights by equating football players to tennis players). Liberal political commentator KeithOlbermann got his start as a [=SportsCenter=] anchor. Former late-night talk show host Craig Kilborn is also an ESPN alum, as are ''Good Morning America'' anchors Robin Roberts and Josh Elliott.

In the early 00s, ESPN opened up an Original Entertainment wing, for original movies and tv shows. This led to the brilliant football themed series ''Playmakers'', which sadly was canceled because the NFL was not too happy at how the series hit too close to home about issues involving the league. It also led to the not nearly as brilliant poker themed series ''Tilt''. This in turn led to the network focusing instead on either tv movies ( ''A Season on the Brink'' (about Bobby Knight, who is now an ESPN analyst), ''The Junction Boys'' (about Paul "Bear" Bryant's first summer at Texas A&M), ''3: The Dale Earnhardt Story'' ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Self-explanatory]]),) as well as mini-serieses such as ''The Bronx is Burning'' (A miniseries about the Yankees' turbulent 1977 season), and ''Four Minutes'' (about Roger Bannister running the first 4-minute mile in 1954). Their "30 for 30" series, created by columnist BillSimmons and featuring 30 short films on a variety of subjects, done by professional filmmakers, has been critically acclaimed.

ESPN, which stands for the '''E'''ntertainment and '''S'''ports '''P'''rogramming '''N'''etwork, was the USA's first 24-hour sports network, and as a network dedicated solely to the sports fan, they have never [[Creator/{{NBC}} interrupted a game for regularly scheduled programming, interrupted a]] ''[[Creator/{{NBC}} playoff]]'' [[Creator/{{NBC}} game for pre-race coverage of the Kentucky Derby,]] [[{{FOX}} or carried multiple games at the same time while blacking out every out-of-market game being played at the time, regardless of whether or not it was one of the games they were carrying]]. They ''do'', however, shamelessly shill for the superstar athletes, including breaking into coverage in order to show live look-ins at Barry Bonds's at-bats when he was chasing Hank Aaron's record, doing the same thing with Manny Ramirez's ''rehab appearances in the minors'' when coming back from a 50-game suspension for PED use, actively televising Roger Clemens's minor league rehab starts when he decided to un-retire midseason and then his starts for an ''independent'' minor league team when he tried to unretire at age 50 to delay his Hall of Fame eligibility an additional 5 years, and letting [=LeBron=] James spend an hour telling us which team he'll play for in the next year, something done by every other athlete and team via a one-page press release. They are often accused of being biased towards teams from certain regions--usually the Boston and New York teams, perhaps understandable due to their Connecticut home (a common nickname for ESPN is the Eastern Sports Promotion Network), but also the L.A. Dodgers, the L.A. Lakers, USC, the Cubs, the Heat, and whatever team Brett Favre decided to play for. There is a series of memes depicting them as the Tim Tebow network. But enough about their common criticisms...

ESPN's signature show is ''SportsCenter'', which has been running multiple episodes per night since the network launched in September of 1979. [[LongRunners This means there are over 30,000 episodes of]] ''SportsCenter'', primarily of the hour-long variety, and more commonly longer than shorter. Specialized versions of [=SportsCenter=] for other major sports are common, most notably ''Baseball Tonight'', ''NBA Fastbreak'', ''College [=GameDay=]'' (football and basketball-flavored), and ''NFL Countdown'' (Sunday and Monday versions). Other shows include ''Mike and Mike In the Morning'' (Simulcast with ESPN Radio), ''ESPN First Take'' (formerly ''Cold Pizza''), ''Series/JimRomeIsBurning'', ''Series/AroundTheHorn'', ''Series/PardonTheInterruption'', ''Series/SportsNation'', ''NumbersNeverLie'' and ''Series/DanLeBatardIsHighlyQuestionable'', which are eight different varieties of having people [[LargeHam spouting off sports opinions]] [[NoIndoorVoice in loud voices]], which is probably the ''coolest job ever''. (Add in ''ESPN Radio'''s lineup with The Herd, SVP and Rusillo, Coach and Coleman, and Hill and Schlereth, and you've got twelve.) However, there are limits to how loud and abrasive you're allowed to be in opinionating, as evidenced by the failure of ''Quite Frankly with Steven A. Smith'' (Which also means Jim Rome must have mellowed out some from his days of provoking fights by equating football players to tennis players). Liberal political commentator KeithOlbermann got his start as a [=SportsCenter=] anchor. Former late-night talk show host Craig Kilborn is also an ESPN alum, as are ''Good Morning America'' anchors Robin Roberts and Josh Elliott.

ESPN's signature show is ''SportsCenter'', which has been running multiple episodes per night since the network launched in September of 1979. [[LongRunners This means there are over 30,000 episodes of]] ''SportsCenter'', primarily of the hour-long variety, and more commonly longer than shorter. Specialized versions of [=SportsCenter=] for other major sports are common, most notably ''Baseball Tonight'', ''NBA Fastbreak'', ''College [=GameDay=]'' (football and basketball-flavored), and ''NFL Countdown'' (Sunday and Monday versions). Other shows include ''Mike and Mike In the Morning'' (Simulcast with ESPN Radio), ''ESPN First Take'' (formerly ''Cold Pizza''), ''Series/JimRomeIsBurning'', ''Series/AroundTheHorn'', ''Series/PardonTheInterruption'', ''Series/SportsNation'', ''NumbersNeverLie'' and ''Series/DanLeBatardIsHighlyQuestionable'', which are eight different varieties of having people [[LargeHam spouting off sports opinions]] [[NoIndoorVoice in loud voices]], which is probably the ''coolest job ever''. (Add in ''ESPN Radio'''s lineup with The Herd, The Scott Van Pelt Show, the Doug Gottlieb Show, and Hill and Schlereth, and you've got twelve.) However, there are limits to how loud and abrasive you're allowed to be in opinionating, as evidenced by the failure of ''Quite Frankly with Steven A. Smith'' (Which also means Jim Rome must have mellowed out some from his days of provoking fights by equating football players to tennis players). Liberal political commentator KeithOlbermann got his start as a [=SportsCenter=] anchor. Former late-night talk show host Craig Kilborn is also an ESPN alum, as are ''Good Morning America'' anchors Robin Roberts and Josh Elliott.

This article has been a presentation of ESPN, the Worldwide Leader in Sports. For more information, visit [[http://www.espn.com ESPN.com]].

ESPN, which stands for the '''E'''ntertainment and '''S'''ports '''P'''rogramming '''N'''etwork, was the USA's first 24-hour sports network, and as a network dedicated solely to the sports fan, they have never [[Creator/{{NBC}} interrupted a game for regularly scheduled programming, interrupted a]] ''[[Creator/{{NBC}} playoff]]'' [[Creator/{{NBC}} game for pre-race coverage of the Kentucky Derby,]] [[{{FOX}} or carried multiple games at the same time while blacking out every out-of-market game being played at the time, regardless of whether or not it was one of the games they were carrying]]. They ''do'', however, shamelessly shill for the superstar athletes, including breaking into coverage in order to show live look-ins at Barry Bonds's at-bats when he was chasing Hank Aaron's record, doing the same thing with Manny Ramirez's ''rehab appearances in the minors'' when coming back from a 50-game suspension for PED use, actively televising Roger Clemens's minor league rehab starts when he decided to un-retire midseason and then his starts for an ''independent'' minor league team when he tried to unretire at age 50 to delay his Hall of Fame eligibility an additional 5 years, and letting [=LeBron=] James spend an hour telling us which team he'll play for in the next year, something done by every other athlete and team via a one-page press release. They are often accused of being biased towards teams from certain regions--usually the Boston and New York teams, perhaps understandable due to their Connecticut home (a common nickname for ESPN is the Eastern Sports Promotion Network), but also the L.A. Dodgers, the L.A. Lakers, USC, the Cubs, the Heat, and whatever team Brett Favre decided to play for. But enough about their common criticisms...