Fun & Games: TSN's "SportsCentre" Aims To Reinvigorate Highlight Show

TSN’s “SportsCentre” is “trying to reinvigorate the genre” of the sports-highlights broadcast in Canada, and the show "is a loopier, freer-flowing affair -- with substantially more hockey coverage -- than its bigger American cousin,” ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” according to Will Connors of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. TSN’s show is “wildly popular” in Canada and “SportsCentre” co-anchors Dan O'Toole and Jay Onrait “have become national celebrities” in the country. Producers each summer “take their show on the road, broadcasting from small towns across Canada.” Onrait and O'Toole said that their “inspiration comes from the glory days of the American sports show, along with David Letterman-style late-night routines.” Onrait said, "The biggest comment we get from Americans is, 'This reminds me of SportsCenter from the 90s.'" Connors wrote many comedic stunts "can seem random to the uninitiated,” and “occasionally O'Toole and Onrait are asked to rein in the comedy” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 7/19).