ESPN’s SportsCenter has been the flagship program for the network since its launch in September 1979. Over the years, with more than 60,000 episodes broadcast, regular anchors have become household names in sports media. Notable figures such as Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, Rich Eisen, and Stuart Scott are among them.
On Thursday morning, Dan Le Batard discussed on his program, The Dan Le Batard Show, whether the value of both the anchor and the SportsCenter program has reached its lowest point ever.
“The casual fan observes through highlights, the NBA chief among them, but observing highlights on your phone or through your social media is different than having to go to your television,” said Le Batard on Thursday’s program. “Everyone’s being asked to take pay cuts because media is shrinking and media is in trouble. There are fewer jobs in general than there used to be. As a practice, ESPN makes sure that the four letters are the thing that matters the most, and that other parts are interchangeable or disposable.”
Before sharing his perspective, Le Batard noted that while watching SportsCenter earlier that morning, he did not recognize the anchors on set. Meanwhile, ESPN recently announced an expansion of SportsCenter, launching SC+, a daily live program on Disney+ that will feature top sports moments, key stories, expert insights, and exclusive commentary.
Le Batard specifically examined Scott Van Pelt, who hosts the weekday evening SportsCenter—the highest-rated edition of the program. While he believes Van Pelt is among the best to ever host the show, he also pointed out that the evolving landscape of sports media may soon render anchors an endangered species.
“Scott Van Pelt, he’s as good as anyone who has ever done that,” Le Batard explained. “I’m just saying the construct of what it is these things are, it makes it so that kind of personality is less important than he or she has ever been. And the movement throughout the industry seems to be that it doesn’t matter who the anchors are.”
Le Batard argued that ESPN has long established a precedent that no single personality will ever be bigger than the network itself. While he acknowledged that this approach may be good for business, he also suggested that it could be detrimental to the industry as a whole. To illustrate his point, he used Van Pelt as an example.
“I think Scott Van Pelt is so popular that ESPN will continue to pay him,” said Le Batard. “I also know that if ESPN lost Scott Van Pelt, it wouldn’t be some sort of seismic thing. In general, the sports anchor is less valuable throughout everywhere in television than he or she has been almost the entirety of my lifetime.”
As co-hosts Mike Ruiz and Chris Cote pointed out the success of the midnight edition of SportsCenter, which Van Pelt hosts, they highlighted how much of that success stems from his engaging conversations with key sports figures. Le Batard, however, argued that the network itself plays a major role in creating those opportunities.
“I would say that if ESPN chooses to make its midnight flagship something that it’s pouring all of its resources in,” stated Le Batard. “One of the things you guys just said is he’s got the greatest guests, that has nothing to do with Scott Van Pelt. Scott Van Pelt is being put in a good position to have maximum support and resources and do that better than most people have ever done it.”
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