Week in review
Country music star Kenny Chesney has a long history of working with ESPN. His latest role is a spot in the newly released This Is SportsCenter commercial. In the ad, Chesney and SportsCenter anchor Steve Levy grab a meal in the ESPN Cafeteria. But as Levy discovers, Chesney sits with a group of sports personalities that isn’t anchor-friendly.
It was a busy week for the Front Row’s “Front & Center” podcasts as we caught up with Sportscaster of the Year Dan Shulman, Medill School of Journalism commencement speaker Michael Wilbon and Around The Horn host Tony Reali.
Let’s review our week on Front Row:
• ESPN’s Shulman was named Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (NSSA). In the Front & Center podcast, he talks about being celebrated by his peers.
• As co-host of Pardon the Interruption, a columnist for ESPN.com and ESPNChicago, and as a NBA studio analyst on Kia NBA Countdown, Wilbon wears a lot of hats at ESPN. In the Front & Center podcast, Wilbon discusses the honor of addressing this year’s Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism (his alma mater) graduates and the message he plans to impart, the Heat-Thunder NBA Finals series and why working on ESPN’s Los Angeles-based NBA studio coverage this season has been such a gratifying experience.
• From a humble start at the Worldwide Leader to becoming the guy who is now watched daily on two of ESPN’s most popular shows, Reali has certainly paid his dues. In this Front & Center podcast, Reali discusses office life in the ABC News Bureau in Washington, D.C., the unexpected circumstances that thrust him into the ATH host chair in 2004 and the story behind the online video he filmed as an homage to the famous Copacabana scene in Goodfellas.
• Arianna Huffington, one of the most recognized names in the media industry, most notably for her founding of The Huffington Post, visited ESPN this week as part of the employee Newsmaker luncheon series. Front Row asked about her experience on the Bristol campus and commonalities she saw between ESPN and The Huffington Post.
