The “SportsCenter” era in Los Angeles is officially coming to an end.
Mollie Cahillane of Sports Business Journal reported Wednesday that ESPN has decided to end production of their L.A.-based edition of “SportsCenter” and will instead be moving the program to its headquarters in Bristol, Conn.
ESPN’s soccer content will also be moved out of Los Angeles and over to Bristol. Cahillane notes that the decision affects 35 out of 229 ESPN and Disney employees who are based in the network’s Los Angeles Production Center. Those employees will have the option of relocating to Bristol and keeping their same jobs, relocating to Bristol and taking on similar positions, or declining relocation and becoming eligible for severance. ESPN’s NBA programs, including the show “NBA Today,” will still continue to be aired from Los Angeles though.
“Based on our current business needs, we are relocating the L.A.-based ‘SportsCenter’ and soccer studio shows to ESPN’s Bristol headquarters, including the limited number of employee positions related to these shows,” revealed ESPN in a statement to Sports Business Journal. “The Los Angeles Production Center will continue to host ESPN’s NBA studio productions and provide office space to additional L.A.-based employees.”
Cahillane further adds that ESPN will continue to produce “SportsCenter” from Los Angeles until May (with the last L.A.-based edition airing on Fri., May 16). After that point, “SportsCenter” will continue to air in its usual 1 AM EST timeslot, only from Bristol. You can read Cahillane’s full report on the situation here.
“SportsCenter,” which has aired on ESPN since the network’s inception in 1979, now has three total editions — the daytime and evening editions (which are already aired from Bristol), the Scott Van Pelt edition (which is aired from Washington, D.C.), and the 1 AM EST edition. The 1 AM EST edition, which is also re-aired by ESPN throughout the early morning hours, moved from Bristol to Los Angeles in 2009 and had been based there ever since.
It is unclear at this point how the relocation decision will affect some of the more prominent names who feature on the L.A. edition of “SportsCenter” (including anchors Stan Verrett and Linda Cohn). But the changing times have definitely come to ESPN of late as they also recently made the decision to end one of their other long-running television programs.
