ESPN plans to celebrate its silver anniversary in style and on the air.
A
multimedia project that will also include components in ESPN Radio and
ESPN-The Magazine, "ESPN25," commemorating the total sports network's run
from 1979 through 2004, will bow May 31 next year.
More than 30 hours of programming will begin with The Moments, a daily
countdown of the 100 most memorable moments during the aforementioned span.
Weekly programming will begin June 8, the first of 14 consecutive Tuesday
evenings with shows devoted to the sports revolution of the past 25 years.
Among the highlights: a two-hour kickoff special, Then and Now, will
look at how dramatically the sports world has changed from 1979 to the present;
The Headlines, encompassing 13 one-hour shows, will count down the 25
biggest sports-related stories; and Who's # 1, a 13-episode look at a
different top 25 list, from worst teams and chokes to best plays and games, each
week.
A closing two-hour program Sept. 7, 2004 -- the network's 25th
anniversary -- will review ESPN's evolution over the course.
ESPN25 will be produced by the same group responsible for the Sports Emmy and
Peabody Award-winning SportsCentury project, which was headed by Mark
Shapiro, now ESPN's executive vice president, programming and production
The lists for ESPN25 will be based upon voting by an updated version of
the SportsCentury panel. ESPN anchors -- including Chris Berman, Bob Ley,
Dan Patrick and Stuart Scott -- will host the programs.
ESPN announced Wednesday that it has already booked three major
advertisers.
Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.'s Bud Light, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. and
T-Mobile USA are the sponsors so far, buying across various media
platforms.
