SportsCenter
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SportsCenter is a sports news television show shown every day on ESPN since the network was founded on September 7, 1979. Originally a once a day show, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major sporting events. As a result of the regular airing, it has now been shown more times than any other show in American television.
SportsCenter news anchors include Dan Patrick, Stuart Scott, John Anderson, and Linda Cohn. In the past, it also included among others, Craig Kilborn, Robin Roberts, Keith Olbermann, Charley Steiner, Karie Ross, Rich Eisen, and the late Tom Mees, who died unexpectedly during a swimming accident in 1996. Chris Berman, who has been with the network since October 1979, occasionally makes appearances on the program.
SportsCenter aired its 25,000th episode on August 25, 2002, and its 20,000th coincidentally aired on the same day David Wells pitched his perfect game for the New York Yankees against the Minnesota Twins: May 17, 1998. Sometime in 2006, the program will air its' 30,000th episode. The program began broadcasting in high definition on June 7, 2004, and on the same day began broadcasting the show from studios inside the network's brand-new Digital Center.
In 1994 ESPN began the This is SportsCenter ad campaign to promote their show.
During the summer of 2004, ESPN counted down the top 100 sports moments of the past 25 years. Hosted by Chris Berman, ESPN25 consisted of 30-second commercials shown during the 6pm ET SportsCenter each day from May 31 until the #1 moment, the USA hockey team's victory over the USSR during the 1980 Winter Olympics, was aired on September 7.
After ESPN acquired a share of Canadian sports network TSN, that network's news program SportsDesk was re-branded as SportsCentre (using Canadian spelling) in the summer of 2001.
SportsCenter normally airs every morning from 5am-1pm; 6pm; 11pm; and 1am (Eastern Time).