ESPN is revamping the weekday afternoon programming lineups on ESPN and ESPN2 starting Aug. 5 and the Sunday morning programming lineups for both channels starting Sept. 8. The newest addition is Colin Cowherd's NFL/college football show "Cowherd on Football," which launches Sept. 8, the opening Sunday of the NFL season, and will occupy ESPN2's 9:00-10:00am ET timeslot on Sundays. Two other new shows that had been announced previously -- "NFL Insiders" and "ESPN FC" -- will debut in August. "NFL Insiders" will star Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter and will take ESPN's 3:00-4:00pm weekday timeslot beginning August 5. "ESPN FC," which will air on weekdays and Sundays, launches Aug. 11 and will occupy ESPN2's 5:30-6:00pm weekday timeslot beginning the next day. ESPN says the changes are being made for the upcoming football season. Of course, these changes will occur around the time that Fox plans to launch its all-sports channel, FS1, on Aug. 17. ESPN Exec VP/Programming Norby Williamson said, "This is all about best serving sports fans through the heart of football season." Williamson added, "Our revamped weekday and weekend lineups will showcase new shows, popular series and a schedule best suited for this great time of year on the sports calendar" (John Ourand, Staff Writer).
| WEEKDAY LINEUP STARTING AUG. 5 |
| TIME (ET) | ESPN | ESPN2 |
| 2:00-2:30pm | "SportsCenter" | "Numbers Never Lie" |
| 2:30-3:00pm | | |
| 3:00-3:30pm | "NFL Insiders" | "SportsNation" |
| 3:30-4:00pm | | |
| 4:00-4:30pm | "NFL Live" | "Highly Questionable" |
| 4:30-5:00pm | | "Outside The Lines" |
| 5:00-5:30pm | "Around The Horn" | "College Football Live" |
| 5:30-6:00 | "Pardon the Interruption" | "ESPN FC" |
| SUNDAY LINEUP STARTING SEPT. 8 |
| TIME (ET) | ESPN | ESPN2 |
| 8:00-8:30am | "SportsCenter" | "Outside The Lines" |
| 8:30-9:00am | | "The Sports Reporters" |
| 9:00-9:30am | | "Cowherd on Football" |
| 10:00-10:30am | "NFL Countdown" | "SportsCenter" |
| 10:30-11:00am | | |
| 11:00-11:30am | | "Fantasy Football Now" |
| 11:30am-noon | | |
| noon-12:30pm | | |
| 12:30-1:00pm | | |
GOING HIGH ON THE A-LIST: SI's Richard Deitsch reports ESPN's "College GameDay" is "eyeing" President Obama and Tiger Woods to make guest appearances on the show as "celebrity pickers." ESPN Senior Coordinating Producer for College Sports Studio Shows Lee Fitting said that representatives from both Obama and Woods have "reached out to express interest" in appearing on the show. Fitting: "The President has expressed interest and as crazy as it sounds, he might come whenever he can fit in. ... Tiger has also expressed interest and we have talked to his agent, Mark Steinberg. He just has to work it into his schedule. We are talking about going to Stanford for it" (
SI.com, 7/15).
