''The Sports Reporters'' was a sports talk show that aired on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

at 9:30 a.m. ET every Sunday morning (and replayed at 10:30 a.m. ET the same day on

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

and 11:30 AM on

ESPNews ESPNews (pronounced "ESPN News", stylized ESPNEWS) is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns ...

). It featured a roundtable discussion among four sports media personalities, with one regular host and three rotating guests. The show began in 1988, patterned to some extent after the Chicago-based syndicated show called '' Sportswriters on TV''. The show was originally broadcast from a studio in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, and from 1999 to 2010 it was recorded at the

ESPN Zone ESPN Zone was a theme restaurant and entertainment center chain in the United States that included arcades, TV studios, and radio studios, operated by the Disney Regional Entertainment subsidiary of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts using the Disne ...

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

in Manhattan before it closed. It then moved to

Bristol, Connecticut Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, southwest-west of Hartford. The city is also 120 miles southwest from Boston, and approximately 100 miles northeast of New York City. As of the 2020 census, the ...

at the main ESPN studios, where it stayed until the end of its run. On January 23, 2017, ESPN announced its planned cancellation, following the death of host John Saunders. The final episode aired May 7, 2017. The show would return in the form of a podcast in September 2017, produced now through

Compass Media Networks Compass Media Networks is an American radio network. The company launched in January 2009. It is owned by former Westwood One CEO and former COO of Connoisseur Media, Peter Kosann. The company focuses on radio and offers representation and ma ...

Hosts and panelists

''The Sports Reporters'' first aired in 1988 and was originally hosted by

Gary Thorne Gary F. Thorne (born June 9, 1948) is an American sportscaster. He was the lead play-by-play announcer for Baltimore Orioles games on MASN from 2007 to 2020. He has also worked for ESPN and ABC, including National Hockey League, Major League ...

, who was replaced by

Dick Schaap Richard Jay Schaap (September 27, 1934 – December 21, 2001) was an American sportswriter, broadcaster, and author. Early life and education Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, and raised in Freeport, New York, on Long Island, Schaap began writ ...

later that year. Following Schaap's death in 2001, he was replaced by John Saunders, who hosted it until his own death in 2016. The first year featured four rotating panelists, but afterwards there were three rotating panel members. Regular panelists included

Mike Lupica Michael Lupica (; born May 11, 1952) is an author and former American newspaper columnist, best known for his provocative commentary on sports in the ''New York Daily News'' and his appearances on ESPN. Biography Lupica was born in Oneida, ...

of the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'',

John Feinstein John Feinstein (born July 28, 1956) is an American sportswriter, author and sports commentator. Early life Feinstein was born to a Jewish family in New York City on July 28, 1956. His father was heavily involved in the arts having been the Gen ...

of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'',

Mitch Albom Mitchell David Albom (born May 23, 1958) is an American author, journalist, and musician. His books have sold over 40 million copies worldwide. Having achieved national recognition for sports writing in his early career, he turned to writing the ...

of the ''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...

'',

Michael Wilbon Michael Wilbon (; born ) is an American commentator for ESPN and former sportswriter and columnist for ''The Washington Post''. He is an analyst for ESPN and has co-hosted ''Pardon the Interruption'' on ESPN since 2001. Early life and education ...

also from the ''Washington Post'',

Bob Ryan Robert P. Ryan (born February 21, 1946) is an American sportswriter, formerly with ''The Boston Globe'', and author. He has been described as "the quintessential American sportswriter" and a basketball guru, and is well known for his coverage of ...

of the ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'',

William C. Rhoden William C. Rhoden is an American sports journalist and author, who formerly worked as a columnist for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 until 2016, when he joined ESPN's The Undefeated as a writer-at-large, where he is currently employed. Rhoden ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Ralph Wiley Ralph Heygood Wiley Jr. (April 12, 1952 – June 13, 2004) was an American sports journalist who wrote for ''Sports Illustrated'' and ESPN's Page 2. He was well known for his distinctive literary tone and his writings on race in America. Earl ...

of ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' and

Stephen A. Smith Stephen Anthony Smith (born ) is an American sports television personality, sports radio host, and sports journalist. He is a commentator on ESPN's ''First Take'', where he appears with Molly Qerim. He also makes frequent appearances as an N ...

. Former panelists included

Jason Whitlock Jason Lee Whitlock (born April 27, 1967) is an American sports journalist, columnist, and podcaster. He hosts a program for the media company Blaze Media, where he hosts the show ''Fearless with Jason Whitlock''. Whitlock is a former columnist ...

of ''

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...

'',

Christine Brennan Christine Brennan (born May 14, 1958) is a sports columnist for ''USA Today'', a commentator on ABC News, CNN, PBS NewsHour and NPR, and a best-selling author. She was the first female sports reporter for the ''Miami Herald'' in 1981, the first ...

of ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'',

Tony Kornheiser Anthony Irwin Kornheiser (; born July 13, 1948) is an American television sports talk show host and former sportswriter and columnist. Kornheiser is best known for his endeavors in three forms of media: as a writer for ''The Washington Post'' from ...

of ''

'',

Mike Downey Mike Downey (born August 9, 1951 in Chicago Heights, Illinois, and raised in the nearby village of Steger, Illinois) is a retired American newspaper columnist. From 2003 to 2008, Downey wrote the "In the Wake of the News" column for the ''Chica ...

of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', Roy S. Johnson of ''

'' and ''

'',

Bill Conlin William T. Conlin Jr. (May 15, 1934January 9, 2014) was an American sportswriter. He was a columnist for the '' Philadelphia Daily News'' for 46 years. Prior to that, Conlin worked at the '' Philadelphia Bulletin''. He was a member of the Baseb ...

of the ''

Philadelphia Daily News ''Philadelphia Daily News'' is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper is owned by The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. The ''Dail ...

'' and

Bryan Burwell Bryan Ellis Burwell (August 4, 1955 – December 4, 2014) was an American sportswriter and author. He joined the ''St. Louis Post Dispatch'' in 2002, after leaving HBO's ''Inside the NFL'', where he worked as a sports correspondent. Burwell also w ...

of the ''

St. Louis Post Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, serving the Greater St. Louis, St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpass ...

''. As the show was based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and then

, the panelists were usually from the northeastern portion of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. For a long time, there were no women serving as regular panelists on the show, but in celebration of

Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...

, one show in 2005 included three female sports journalists. In the show's later years, Selena Roberts of ''

'' and ESPN's

Jemele Hill Jemele Juanita Hill (; born 1975) is an American sports journalist who writes for ''The Atlantic''. She worked nearly 12 years for sports conglomerate ESPN. She wrote a column for ESPN.com's Page 2 and formerly hosted ESPN's '' His and Hers''. ...

had made regular appearances on the show. The August 28, 2016, episode of the show made history with an all female edition of ''The Sports Reporters'', with Hill as the moderator and fellow ESPN reporters

Sarah Spain Sarah Colby Spain (born August 18, 1980) is an American sports reporter. She works as an espnW.com columnist, ESPN Radio host, ESPN television personality and occasional ''SportsCenter'' reporter for ESPN. Early life and education Spain was b ...

Kate Fagan Kate Fagan (born November 15, 1981) is an American sports reporter and commentator who previously was employed by ESPN. Before joining the ESPN staff, she worked as the ''Philadelphia Inquirer's'' beat writer for the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. ...

, and Jane McManus on the panel. When Saunders was on assignment or unable to host due to illness, Lupica was usually the designated substitute host and became the permanent host after the death of Saunders in August 2016 until the final episode in May 2017. Dick's son

Jeremy Schaap Jeremy Schaap is an American sportswriter, television reporter, and author. Schaap is an eleven-time Emmy Awards winner for his work on ESPN's '' E:60'', ''SportsCenter'', and ''Outside the Lines''. Biography He is a regular contributor to ...

also guest-hosted on occasion.

September 16, 2001

The show was expanded to an hour to cover the sports perspective from the

September 11th attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

. It also proved to be

's last show as he underwent

hip replacement Hip replacement is a surgical procedure in which the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant, that is, a hip prosthesis. Hip replacement surgery can be performed as a total replacement or a hemi (half) replacement. Such joint replacement o ...

surgery and later died from complications. In fact, he delayed the surgery in order to be on that show.

November 15, 2015

The show covered the sports perspective from the

November 2015 Paris attacks The November 2015 Paris attacks () were a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks that took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 9:15p.m., three suicide bombers ...

and how the attacks had an impact in the security system in sports facilities.

Death of Saunders

Host John Saunders died unexpectedly on August 10, 2016, at the age of 61. The August 14 episode, hosted by

, featured tributes to Saunders by the panelists.

Conclusion

After nearly 30 years on ESPN, the final episode of ''The Sports Reporters'' aired on May 7, 2017, with Lupica hosting, and Ryan, Rhoden, and Albom as the panelists.

Podcast

On September 8, 2017, ''The Sports Reporters'' relaunched as a twice weekly podcast co-hosted by Albom and Lupica with a rotating cast of the top sports writers in the business, including former panelists from the original ESPN program. It is produced through

, rather than ESPN. The podcast ceased producing episodes following the March 31, 2022 podcast.

References

External links

Current podcast website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sports Reporters, The 1980s American television talk shows 1990s American television talk shows 2000s American television talk shows 2010s American television talk shows American sports television series ESPN original programming 1988 American television series debuts 2017 American television series endings Television shows filmed in New York City Television shows filmed in Connecticut