Yesterday, ESPN’s SportsCenter aired its 50,000th edition.
That’s more episodes than any program in television history.
This month on Front Row, ESPN’s corporate blog, we’ve presented sports fans with glimpses inside ESPN’s flagship news and information program. In two videos, original anchor George Grande and ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen reflected on the initial program – airing September 7, 1979 with the network’s launch –- and the myriad changes and challenges since.
Front Row also presented behind-the-scenes looks at the program, including the people who help get the show on the air regularly, the composer of the iconic “DaDaDa, DaDaDa” theme song, as well as memories of longtime anchor Chris Berman. You can sample the retrospective here.
Consider some of these SportsCenter fun facts:
- 18 million people tune to SportsCenter each day across the ESPN TV networks (includes live and repeat).
- 148 million people tune to SportsCenter each month across the ESPN TV networks (includes live and repeat).
- 65 million men (M18+) or 60% of the men in the US tune to SportsCenter each month across the ESPN networks (includes live and repeat).
- A typical one-hour SportsCenter show provides on average 95 insert graphics and 14 animation elements. That’s more than 1.5 graphics a minute.
- To get SportsCenter on the air per year it takes approximately 127 people on average. Approximately 50 people work on SC show on average per show.
Congratulations, ESPN SportsCenter, on this remarkable milestone!