Editing SportsCenter (section)

===2000s===

In 2001, [[Toronto]]-based [[CTVglobemedia|Bell Globemedia]] and ESPN (which received a minority stake) jointly acquired [[The Sports Network]] (TSN). As part of its shift to ESPN-influenced branding, the [[specialty channel]] rebranded its existing sports news program ''SportsDesk'' and changed its name to ''[[SportsCentre]]'', using the same introductions and theme music as the ESPN version, except with its title rendered using [[Canadian English|Canadian spelling]].<ref>{{cite web|url =https://rbr.com/tsn-radio-launches-two-sports-stations-in-canada/|title =TSN Radio launches two Sports stations in Canada|last1 =Marcucci|first1 =Carl|date =October 5, 2011|website =Radio and Television Business Report|publisher=Radio Business Report|access-date =2 February 2023}}</ref>

On September 11, 2001, ESPN interrupted regular programming at 11:05&nbsp;a.m. Eastern to cover the immediate aftermath of the [[September 11 attacks|terror attacks]] through a [[simulcast]] of [[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] coverage. ESPN considered [[List of entertainment affected by the September 11 attacks|suspending that night's editions]] of ''SportsCenter'', before deciding to air a half-hour edition in which they announced the cancellations of major upcoming sporting events.<ref>''[[Sports Illustrated]]'', Time Inc., September 24, 2001. The episode also honored all who had died that day.</ref>

On June 7, 2004, ''SportsCenter'' began broadcasting in [[high-definition television|high definition]]. Along with the conversion, the program introduced a new set designed by [[Walt Disney Imagineering]] (situated in a studio located at ESPN's new "Digital Center"), and a new graphics package titled "Revolution" that was developed by Troika Design Group.<ref>{{cite web|title=ESPN to open Digital Center June 7|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tvlistings/espnhd/espnHDStory?id=1802691|website=ESPN.com|publisher=ESPN Inc.|date=May 16, 2004|access-date=October 6, 2015|archive-date=October 6, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006231048/http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tvlistings/espnhd/espnHDStory?id=1802691|url-status=dead}}</ref> During that summer, ESPN celebrated its [[ESPN25|25th anniversary]], by counting down the top 100 moments in sports over the previous 25 years. The countdown was seen on each ''SportsCenter'' broadcast daily beginning on May 31, 2004; the countdown concluded with the #1 moment, the [[United States men's national ice hockey team]]'s [[Miracle on Ice|victory]] over the [[Soviet national ice hockey team|USSR]] during the [[1980 Winter Olympics]], airing on September 7, 2004.

During the summer of 2005, ''SportsCenter'' premiered a segment called "[[50 States in 50 Days]]", where a different ''SportsCenter'' anchor traveled to a different state each day to discover the sports, sports history, and athletes of the state.<ref>{{cite web|title=50 States in 50 Days|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/fiftyfifty/index|website=ESPN.com|publisher=ESPN Inc.|access-date=October 6, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050810014037/http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/fiftyfifty/index|archive-date=August 10, 2005}}</ref>

On April 4, 2006, ''SportsCenter'' began to show highlights of [[Major League Baseball]] games in progress at the program's airtime; the rights to broadcast these highlights while games were ongoing was previously given exclusivity to fellow ESPN program, ''Baseball Tonight''; the in-progress highlights are shown as part of the "Baseball Tonight Extra" segment. Prior to that date, video footage from MLB games was not shown on any ''SportsCenter'' broadcasts until the games completed play.

On February 11, 2007, following the [[National Basketball Association|NBA]] game between the [[2006-07 Chicago Bulls season|Chicago Bulls]] and the [[2006-07 Phoenix Suns season|Phoenix Suns]], ''SportsCenter'' aired its 30,000th broadcast. The special milestone edition was anchored by [[Steve Levy]] and Stuart Scott; Bob Ley, Chris Berman and Dan Patrick made guest appearances to recap events as well as bloopers from the first 10,000 shows (all three men individually counted down each set of 10,000 clips).<ref>{{cite web|title=ESPN To Air 30,000th Live SportsCenter|url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/programming/espn-air-30000th-live-sportscenter/28990|author=Ben Grossman|periodical=[[Broadcasting & Cable]]|publisher=[[Reed Business Information]]|date=January 25, 2007|access-date=October 6, 2015|archive-date=October 8, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151008032406/http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/programming/espn-air-30000th-live-sportscenter/28990|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=ESPN highlight: 30,000th show|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/espn-highlight-30-000th-show-article-1.233652|author=Marisa Guthrie|newspaper=[[New York Daily News]]|publisher=[[Mortimer Zuckerman|Daily News, L.P.]]|date=February 8, 2007|access-date=October 6, 2015|archive-date=October 7, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007102122/http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/espn-highlight-30-000th-show-article-1.233652|url-status=live}}</ref> ESPN also debuted the ''SportsCenter Minute'', a one-minute ''SportsCenter'' update that is streamed exclusively on [[ESPN.com]].

Four months later on May 6, another major change to ''SportsCenter'' was introduced on that night's 11:00&nbsp;p.m. (Eastern) edition, with the debut of a "rundown" graphic that appears on the right-side third of the screen. This feature was originally only shown during rebroadcasts of the overnight edition on Monday through Saturday nights, and on the main Sunday night telecast;<ref>{{cite news|title=ESPN shrinking before our eyes|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2007/05/08/espn-shrinking-before-our-eyes/|author=Teddy Greenstein|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|publisher=[[Tronc|Tribune Publishing]]|date=May 8, 2007|access-date=October 6, 2015|archive-date=October 7, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007164636/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2007-05-08/sports/0705070385_1_espn-bloomberg-tv-screen|url-status=live}}</ref> on ESPNHD, the sidebar graphic filled the right [[pillarbox]] where the ESPNHD logo would usually appear when [[standard-definition television|standard definition]] footage was presented.

The 6:00&nbsp;p.m. edition of ''SportsCenter'' moved one hour earlier to 5:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern Time on May 28, 2007; at that time, the early-evening edition was, for the first time, expanded to three hours. During that broadcast, ESPN aired live coverage of [[Roger Clemens]]'s second start for the [[New York Yankees]]' [[Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders|minor league affiliate]] in [[Scranton, Pennsylvania]]. The 11:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern Time edition of ''SportsCenter'' on August 7, 2007, which was anchored by [[John Buccigross]] and [[Cindy Brunson]], showed live coverage of [[Barry Bonds]]'s 756th career home run, which broke the old MLB record set by [[Hank Aaron]] (ESPN was carrying the game live on ESPN2). In August 2008, the former [[WWE]] employee [[Jonathan Coachman]] joined ESPN to anchor the show.

On August 11, 2008, during the opening week of the [[2008 Beijing Olympic Games]], ''SportsCenter'' began airing live from 9:00&nbsp;a.m. to 3:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern Time. The original plan was to start the live block three hours earlier at 6:00&nbsp;a.m. Eastern; however, the network decided to scale back the length of the daytime broadcast before the expansion occurred.<ref name="SportsCenterAM">{{cite news|title=SportsCenter to air live in mornings starting Aug. 11; Storm joins ESPN|url=https://www.espn.com/espn/news/story?id=3393816|website=ESPN.com|publisher=ESPN Inc.|date=May 13, 2008|access-date=May 13, 2008|archive-date=May 17, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517012658/http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3393816|url-status=live}}</ref>

That same year, [[Hannah Storm]] (former [[NBC Sports]] reporter and anchor of [[CBS]]'s ''[[The Early Show]]'') joined ESPN to anchor the 9:00&nbsp;a.m. to 12:00&nbsp;p.m. block of the program.<ref>{{cite news|title=ESPN whittles down 'SportsCenter' in daytime|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/espn-whittles-down-sportscenter-daytime-115339|author=Paul J. Gough|agency=[[Associated Press]]|periodical=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|publisher=BPI|date=July 9, 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080802092811/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i39993a2e41be155299b9c950b3a9a3ea |archive-date=August 2, 2008 }}</ref> The new format included two teams of two anchors in three-hour shifts:

* 9:00&nbsp;a.m. – 12:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern Time: [[Kevin Negandhi]] (originally [[Josh Elliott]]) and Hannah Storm
* 12:00&nbsp;p.m. – 3:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern Time: [[Jay Crawford]] (originally [[Robert Flores]], then [[John Buccigross]]) and [[Chris McKendry]]

In addition, [[Sage Steele]] would provide updates every 30 minutes from 9:00&nbsp;a.m. to 3:00&nbsp;p.m.<ref>{{cite news|title=Karolyi to keep Costas Company|url=https://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2008-06-19-karolyi-costas_N.htm|author=Michael Hiestand|newspaper=[[USA Today]]|publisher=[[Gannett Company]]|date=June 20, 2008|access-date=May 23, 2010}}</ref> The changes also included a new website for the program – SportsCenter.com, which launched on August 11, 2008 – to promote more interaction with viewers.<ref name="SportsCenterAM" /> To promote these changes, ESPN held an employee casting call to see who would be featured in almost 25 live and unscripted commercials per day. Steve Braband, an International Programmer for the network, won, and was featured in ads shown about every half-hour (excluding from 2:00 to 5:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern Time) on ESPN. Additionally, the network launched the website, steveislive.com, featuring Braband's daily appearance schedule, blog, and video clips of past appearances and audition footage.

Upon that network's launch on February 13, 2009, ''SportsCenter'' began producing a countdown segment, the ''SportsCenter High-5'', for sister channel [[Disney XD]] (which is owned by ESPN majority owner [[The Walt Disney Company]]).<ref>{{cite news|title=Disney XD Open for Business|url=http://adage.com/article/media/disney-xd-cable-network-open-business/134613/|author=Andrew Hampp|website=[[Advertising Age]]|publisher=[[Crain Communications]]|date=February 13, 2009|access-date=August 10, 2014|archive-date=October 7, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007170114/http://adage.com/article/media/disney-xd-cable-network-open-business/134613/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=PRO ATHLETES MENTOR PROMISING ACTION SPORTS AMATEURS IN THE REALITY SERIES "NEXT X," SET TO DEBUT ON DISNEY XD|url=http://www.fatbmx.com/bmx/news/article.php?storyid=7108|periodical=FAT BMX Magazine|publisher=FAT BMX Promotions|date=February 14, 2009|access-date=August 10, 2014|archive-date=August 12, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812205736/http://www.fatbmx.com/bmx/news/article.php?storyid=7108|url-status=live}}</ref>

On April 6, 2009 (starting with the 9:00&nbsp;a.m. to 12:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern Time edition, which was anchored by Hannah Storm and Sage Steele), ''SportsCenter'' debuted a new graphics package that saw the "rundown" graphic – shown during the daytime editions – being shifted to the left side of the screen. On that same date, ''SportsCenter'' began producing its 1:00&nbsp;a.m. Eastern Time edition of ''SportsCenter'' live from ESPN's production facilities in the newly constructed [[L.A. Live]] complex (just across from the [[Staples Center]]) in Los Angeles. The set is virtually identical to the setup at the main facilities in Bristol, and the late-night West Coast broadcast would be produced as simply another edition of the program. [[Neil Everett]] and [[Stan Verrett]] were appointed as the primary anchors for the Los Angeles-based editions of ''SportsCenter''. A new [[ESPN BottomLine|BottomLine]] ticker was also unveiled that day on four of the five ESPN networks (ESPN, [[ESPN2]], [[ESPN Classic]] and [[ESPNU]]); the redesigned ticker was quickly dropped, reverting to the old BottomLine design – which had been in use since April 2003 – due to an equipment failure (however, this ticker was operational for the [[2009 NFL draft]] and the [[2009 NBA draft]]). After technical issues with the revamped BottomLine were fixed, the new BottomLine was reinstated on July 8.

The [[2009 U.S. Open Golf Championship]], which was repeatedly delayed due to weather, aired on both [[NBC]] and ESPN. Portions of ESPN's broadcast, including the early parts of the Monday final round, were presented under the "''SportsCenter'' at the U.S. Open" banner – using a similar branding as the segments-within-the-show focusing on nightly highlights and analysis of a particular event originating from the event locations (such as "''SportsCenter'' at the [[Super Bowl]]" and "''SportsCenter'' at the [[World Series]]"). In August 2009, Robert Flores – co-anchor of the program's 12:00 to 3:00&nbsp;p.m. block – was replaced on the early-afternoon broadcasts with John Buccigross.