ESPN’s ever-scrolling ticker at the bottom of our screens wasn’t always there. The technology and idea didn’t fully merge onto the network’s programming until 1995. As common place and necessary as it feels now, it was met with some disagreement internally at the beginning.
Linda Cohn recalled one of those moments when she and some of her cohorts were learning about this “new thing” that scroll on SportsCenter and give the final score sometimes before the highlights even aired. She told the story on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast with Jimmy Traina.
“We were like, ‘what?’, said Cohn upon hearing of the idea at first. “I thought you cared about how we present our on-camera lead-ins, which is what we write, to present this big game and to build up the anticipation and to get the audience involved even though one of these teams they couldn’t care less about them.”
Cohn recalled Scott Van Pelt debating against the idea in the same meeting.
“So I remember Scott standing up, and when he stands up he’s even taller,” said Cohn, “he put on such a great debate saying everything we were thinking. ‘Wait a minute, how are we telling people the score before they see the highlights? That doesn’t make any sense.'”
Cohn added onto the discussion by giving a film analgy.
“It’s a like a great movie,” Cohn began. “We are telling the end of the movie before we saw the whole movie. What are you doing?”
In the end, ESPN still decided to adopt the technology onto their flagship show.
“We had no choice, we had no say, and we did it and the rest is history.”
