Touch Up Paint: ESPN To Debut New "SportsCenter" Look Monday

ESPN's "SportsCenter" Next Week To Debut Updated Opening And New Graphics

ESPN's "SportsCenter" beginning Monday with the 9:00am ET episode will debut an updated opening animation and new graphics. The changes will include a redesigned Bottom Line, while new graphics include a new font, layout and colors. The rundown, which lists upcoming stories, will move from the right side of the screen to the left. The rundown also will be inverted, with the current story at the bottom of the screen and upcoming stories listed in order above it. The moves are designed to coincide with the first live "SportsCenter" from the net's L.A. studio, which will air at 1:00am ET Tuesday morning (ESPN). BROADCASTING & CABLE's Glen Dickson reported ESPN's L.A. Live-based production facility features "three production control rooms, two master control rooms, eight craft-edit suites, a music room, a voiceover room and two studios totaling more than 12,300 square feet." The net also designed the HD facility, which will broadcast "SportsCenter" regularly from the site, to "support the 1080-line-progressive-scan HD format at 60 frames per second, which ESPN and other networks believe they will eventually use to produce content" (BROADCASTING & CABLE, 3/30 issue).

TALENT TALK: In Philadelphia, John Gonzalez notes ESPN's Hannah Storm on "SportsCenter" yesterday morning interviewed NBC golf announcer Dan Hicks, her husband, who called the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and when the two began discussing golfer Tiger Woods, the "spousal interplay got worse." Gonzalez: "One would credit Woods, then the other would agree and ramp up the hyperbole. ... They were like two lovesick tag-team wrestlers working in tandem to drop an elbow on my sleep-deprived head" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 3/31)....In St. Pete, Tom Jones wrote Trent Dilfer has "evolved into ESPN's best NFL analyst." The net also has built a "nice little stable of analysts" with former Buccaneers QBs, including "smooth Steve Young ... and opinionated Shaun King" (TAMPABAY.com, 3/30).

Dan Klores (l) Will Direct Film About Former NBAer Reggie Miller For ESPN

BRINGING IN THE BIG GUNS: ESPN has secured three new filmmakers for ESPN Films' "30 for 30" project. Dan Klores will direct "King of the New York Streets" about former NBAer Reggie Miller's role in the Knicks-Pacers rivalry. Barry Levinson will direct "And The Band Marched On: The Colts Sneak Out of Baltimore," while Albert Maysles will direct "Muhammad and Larry" about the '80 Ali-Holmes heavyweight title fight. Barbara Kopple, previously announced as a director, will make "The Steinbrenner Family Business" (ESPN). The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER's Steven Zeitchik notes Klores' film will focus on Miller's "memorable eight-point spurt in 10 seconds" against the Knicks in the '95 playoffs. Levinson's film will mark the first documentary he will have made, and it will examine the Colts' "ignoble middle-of-the-night escape to Indianapolis" in '84. Meanwhile, ESPN said that Maysles has "obtained rare footage and will chronicle both the build-up to and aftermath" of the Holmes-Ali fight. And Kopple will "look at the transfer of power from polarizing [Yankees Chair] George Steinbrenner to his children." Kopple "already has begun work on the doc and will be shooting" at the Cubs-Yankees exhibition game Friday, the first game at the new Yankee Stadium (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 3/31).