SportsNation (TV series)

SportsNation
Starring Max Kellerman (2013–2016)
Marcellus Wiley (2013–present)
Charissa Thompson (2012–2013)
Colin Cowherd (2009–2012)
Michelle Beadle (2009–2012, 2014–present)
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes 1,456
Production
Location(s) Los Angeles, California
Running time 30 minutes
Release
Original network ESPN2 (2009–2016)
ESPN (2016–present)
Original release July 6, 2009 – present
Website

SportsNation 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,[1] including videos from the internet, athlete Tweets, and online polling.[2] The show had aired in occasional segments on ESPN and ESPN2 before becoming a fixture of ESPN's weekday afternoon block in February 2016.

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 possibly because he did not want to make the move across the country; ESPN Radio does not have a west-coast base of operations), and his final episode aired on December 21, 2012.[1] Wiley, who is a contributor to various programs on ESPN and who is based in Los Angeles, was announced as his replacement. On March 3, 2014, Beadle returned to SportsNation.

On July 10, 2016, it was announced that Kellerman was leaving the show to join First Take as the official replacement for Skip Bayless.[3] Bayless left ESPN in June 2016 for a position with Fox Sports.[4] July 15, 2016 was Kellerman's last show and will officially start his venture on First Take on July 25, 2016.

Notable segments

Winners and Losers

At the end of the show, Max and Marcellus analyze news of the day into winners and losers.

44 Jeers of a month

At the end of the month, SportsNation will show the 44 most sad or embarrassing moments of the month.

The A Block

At the start of each show questions posed to the viewers on the SportsNation website are shown. The hosts discuss each topic briefly, and then reveal what the Nation’s response was.

Did You Hear That?

A countdown of the best sound bites of the day referred to as the top 5 things the viewers "have to hear."

Colin's Pictures

Colin draws pictures with a marker on white poster-sized paper to illustrate a concept to encapsulate his opinion about the stories of the day. After he draws the pictures, Charissa critiques his drawings and the audience cheers if they like his drawing and jeers or remains silent if their reaction is negative.

Three Cheers/Jeers/Tears

Interspersed throughout each show are the following segments showcasing good and bad plays of the day:

Fake Calls From Real Fans

Viewers call in to ask a question of the hosts, while pretending to be a famous sports figure.

Date, Marry, Dump

Presented with the helmets of four NFL teams with a common bond, like having the same win-lose record, or being in the same division, Colin must choose one to: “date”, one to “marry”, and one to “dump”.

Game Time

Every episode one of several games is played, all revolving around predicting how the Nation responded to poll questions. The winner (if there is one) gets to pick a video of his or her choice to be replayed. It is announced with a little voice saying, "What time is it?," with crowd saying "Game Time!" followed by a grunt.

Lock Em' Up

During the NFL season, Colin reveals his three NFL “locks” for the week. First is the Little Lock, going to the team he is fairly certain will win their game. Second is the Solid Lock, going to the team he is more certain will win. The final lock, the Master Lock, goes to the team Colin is the most sure will win. A variation of this segment is Colin's Lock of Love, staged like a reality dating show.

Pulse of the Nation

A list of the top 5 buzzworthy stories of the day. Now the Pop Culture game is usually played during this time.

Weird Web Stories

Each day three videos from the internet are shown, they are unusual and often not sports related. Often, the last video will be paused in the middle to pose a multiple-choice question to the hosts about what they think will happen next. Although rare, some videos are fake.

Power Rankings

The show will list who they believe are the top five in one of several categories. After revealing the list, they then show Tweets by fans listing who they believe the show wrongfully excluded. Common categories include:

Afterwards the hosts talk with the show's senior web wall producer, Gabe.

What We Learned

A recap of the results from the polls at the beginning of the show and the Weird Web Stories.

Special episodes

Video tournaments

During certain episodes, the hosts hold a tournament between 16 sports-related videos. Each match is voted on by the show's viewers. Since the beginning of the show, three such tournaments have been held:

Winners Bracket

In April 2010, the SportsNation crew created an ABC spinoff show called Winners Bracket, broadcast on Saturday and hosted by Michelle Beadle and Marcellus Wiley. The main focus of the show is a tournament pitting 16 highlights of the week against each other via fan vote. In addition to the tournament, the show also features a countdown of 20 "lowlights" of the week as well as web videos, many of which have been featured on SportsNation in the past.

College football edition

In September 2010, a college football-centric edition of SportsNation premiered on ESPNU. The program airs at 10 AM every Saturday during the college football regular season and (as of 2012) is hosted by Cassidy Hubbarth and Christian Fauria.

Audience

The average audience of SportsNation is very young (13–25 years) compared to other ESPN programming.[5] ESPN noted that the show's target audience is college students, men in their 20s, and teenage boys.[5] These are demographics ESPN has been struggling to capture in years past. The average age of the typical audience for SportsNation is 30, according to creator Jamie Horowitz.[6]

Guest hosts

If either primary host is sick or on vacation, guest hosts (usually SportsCenter anchors or ESPN reporters) fill in as needed. Regularly featured guest hosts include Dari Nowkhah, Dana Jacobson, Tim Keown, and Wendi Nix.

Beginning over the summer of 2012 for a series of college football preview special episodes of SportsNation and continuing through the season, ESPNews' Cassidy Hubbarth and ESPN college football analyst Christian Fauria have become the substitute hosts.

Also professional wrestler John Cena guest host two episodes of SportsNation in 2013.

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/18/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.