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Daytime SportsCenters to see familiar faces in different slots come February

Beginning in mid-February, fans will see some new SportsCenter anchor pairings and different time slots for existing duos

Familiar faces will occupy the SportsCenter studio during the daytime, with a few anchor team adjustments set to start in February. (Kelly Backus/ESPN Images)
Jill Frederickson
(Melissa Rawlins/ESPN Images)

With football season winding down, the daytime editions of SportsCenter will see some new anchor pairings as well as a familiar duos in different timeslots beginning the second week in February.

With Cari Champion’s pending departure, the noon ET SportsCenter will no longer be a bicoastal show and instead will originate completely from Bristol, Conn., with Elle Duncan and Matt Barrie helming the newly-expanded 90-minute Monday-Thursday episodes. Hannah Storm and Jay Harris will handle Friday’s noon shows in addition to weekend SCs beginning at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m., while Duncan and Barrie will be on the Sunday 7 a.m. show.

The Thursday, Friday and Saturday 7 a.m. SC will be anchored by Nicole Briscoe and Randy Scott and David Lloyd shifts from the daily noon show to handle Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 7 a.m. shows where he will be joined by Storm on Mondays and Toni Collins the other two days.

“We’re thrilled with the momentum we’ve built before and during the NFL and college football seasons and these adjustments set us up well moving forward,” said Senior Vice President, Production/Content Strategy, Jill Frederickson. “Viewers have embraced the chemistry and camaraderie of the established pairings and we expect Toni and David to seamlessly transition into their new roles.”

This past football season’s 7 a.m. ET edition of SportsCenter was up 3 percent year over year in viewership (356,000 vs. 347,000) for the time periods between Sept. 5–Dec. 27, 2019 versus Sept. 6 – Dec. 28, 2018. Driven by the weekend SportsCenter over those time spans, ESPN is the No. 1 cable network on the weekend from 7 a.m.–1 p.m. across all key male demos (18-34, 18-49 and 25-54) and all key person demos (18-34, 18-49 and 25-54). (More 2019 viewership highlights can be found here.)

(Illustration: Emily Archacki)
Anchor pairings scheduled to start second week of February, 2020. (Illustration: Emily Archacki | Photos: ESPN Images)
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