Editor’s Note: With SportsCenter airing its 50,000th episode last night at 6 p.m. ET, Front Row concludes its content related to the show and the milestone. Today, some of ESPN’s soothsayers take a guess at what #SC100K might look like.
The future of SportsCenter is almost as boundless as one’s imagination and with daily improvements in technology and an increased demand for real-time news and information, the vision is to continue to serve sports fans, anytime, anywhere — and, as you’ll read below and see above, anyway. Front Row sat down with some of SportsCenter’s key behind-the-scenes figures to gather a few prophecies as to what episode 100,000 might look like (it will likely air sometime late in the 2020’s).
Amina Hussein, Coordinating Producer:
I think episode 100,000 will be something that viewers will be able to produce from home; the elements will be produced in Bristol, but the viewer will have the ability to dictate what order they receive their news and highlights.
Rob Hunter, Vice President, Innovation:
There won’t just be one SportsCenter — there will be millions of individualized versions, with fans personal interests reflected in a virtual rundown based on their specific fandom.
ESPN Technology teams have already laid the groundwork to make it all possible. We’re building systems that can make all of ESPN’s content available to all of our subscribers all of the time. This future vision comes from our core editorial strength: ESPN excels at telling fans what happened, why it happened and why they should care. That’s one thing that won’t change during the next 50,000 SportsCenters.
Judson Burch, Coordinating Producer:
When we hit 100,000, the possibilities are endless, but I’ll bet viewers will still get the best highlights presented in the most detailed and insightful way, and I’ll bet the show will still be a lot of fun.
ESPN Founder Bill Rasmussen spoke at UConn on Thursday, coinciding with the 50,000th episode of SportsCenter. For more on Bill and his 2012-13 “ESPN Founder Tour,” visit his website.
