Ryan Smith, a familiar face on ESPN’s SportsCenter, announced that he is stepping away from the network’s flagship sports news program.
“This is my last show hosting SportsCenter. Now I get to move on to other things I’ve been dreaming about doing,” Smith said during his final broadcast. “But I can’t tell you how much of a dream and honor it’s been to work on something that gives people so much joy.”
Smith, who joined ESPN in February 2017, has anchored the weekday 7 a.m. edition of SportsCenter since 2019. Over his tenure, he also hosted Outside the Lines and E:60, while serving as a New York-based correspondent.
Beyond his on-air duties, Smith reported feature stories, investigative pieces, and provided legal analysis across ESPN platforms and ABC News.
“Thanks all the amazing producers, directors, PA’s, editors, folks here working on the studio floor with us. And of course, the amazing co-hosts that I got to work with that made doing this job a blast,” he added, expressing gratitude to colleagues and collaborators.
Smith’s career spans decades across news and sports media. Prior to ESPN, he contributed as a legal analyst and occasionally filled in as host on ABC’s Outside the Lines after joining the network in 2014. He was previously a nightly news anchor at CNN’s Headline News, covering major stories including the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy and high-profile trials such as those of Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman.
Reflecting on the unifying power of sports, Smith told viewers, “This world we live in… we don’t always get along, but this thing we do—sports—is the one thing that crosses lines and lets us be together. So I just want to say thank you to ESPN for letting me do this, and to you for letting me come into your homes and be a small piece of what helps bring us together and be a small piece of that joy.”
A graduate of Syracuse University and Columbia Law School, Smith practiced Sports and Entertainment Law in New York City and served as a lawyer for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars before transitioning full-time into broadcast journalism.
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