Sports Tonight (American TV program)

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Sports Tonight is an American sports news television program that aired on CNN from 1980 to 2001, and on CNN/SI from December 12, 1996 to the channel's demise on May 15, 2002. It normally aired at 11 p.m. ET/10 p.m. CT.

History [ edit ]

The early years [ edit ]

When CNN went on the air on June 1, 1980 one of the first newscasts was a sports bulletin where baseball and North American Soccer League highlights were shown. Later, a nightly program called Sports Tonight went on the air in late night. During this time, Nick Charles and Fred Hickman became established as the program's co-hosts. In addition, CNN aired a weekend program called Sports Saturday and Sports Sunday .

One of the program's most popular features was called "Play of the Day" (later known as the "Replay of the Day"), which showed a highlight (i.e., a spectacular play) from that day's action.

The 1990s and the end [ edit ]

In 1996, CNN launched a new station called CNN/SI . Sports Tonight was renamed CNN/Sports Illustrated , and was replayed many times throughout the night on CNN/SI, like ESPN was doing (and continues to do) with SportsCenter .

The program reclaimed its Sports Tonight name shortly afterwards, and when CNN pre-empted the show in late 2000 [1] due to the coverage of the disputed 2000 presidential election , producers decided to differentiate the format from SportsCenter ' s highlights. Sports Tonight was relaunched in 2001 with a sports talk format, where viewers interacted with the hosts via the Internet and toll-free phone lines about their favorite teams and players. By then, Charles was no longer hosting; Hickman and Vince Cellini were the program's hosts. [2]

Sports Tonight continued on both CNN and CNN/SI until September 2001. When the terrorist attacks occurred on September 11, 2001, [3] CNN went to all-news programming. [4] Three days later, CNN announced that the program would no longer air on CNN, [5] but remain on CNN/SI. In May 2002, CNN/SI shut down operations, [6] and Sports Tonight ended after a 21-year run.

Aftermath [ edit ]

Since the cancellation of Sports Tonight , CNN has aired various programming at 11 p.m. ET, including Connie Chung Tonight , Lou Dobbs Tonight , Anderson Cooper 360 , Erin Burnett OutFront , Don Lemon Tonight , CNN Tonight and currently Laura Coates Live .

CNN International airs a similar show, World Sport , that airs several times a day as of 2023.

In 2024, as part of its launch of a nightly sports block programmed by TNT Sports , sibling network TruTV began airing a 6 p.m. ET news show titled TNT Sports Tonight (originally announced as TNT Sports Update ), which is produced by CNN and hosted by Coy Wire . [7]

List of Sports Tonight hosts [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

  1. ^ SPORTS TONIGHT Celebrates 20 Years
  2. ^ "Sports Tonight - CNN - September 10, 2001 11:00-11:29 EDT" . Internet Archive . 11 September 2001 . Retrieved July 16, 2018 .
  3. ^ Unfortunately, due to the recent news events, Sports Tonight will no longer air on CNN.
  4. ^ CNN eliminates sports show from lineup
  5. ^ CNN Drops “Sports Tonight,” Plans To Focus More On News
  6. ^ CNN/SI signed off with anchors thanking viewers and repeated the same edition of Sports Tonight until midnight, when the channel showed a blue screen with the message, "The owners of CNN/SI have stopped production of the network, and we regret that we can no longer provide it to you."
  7. ^ Steinberg, Brian (March 7, 2024). "Warner Bros. Discovery to Overhaul TruTV With Sports; Sets Nightly Block for Games and More (EXCLUSIVE)" . Variety . Retrieved March 7, 2024 .

External links [ edit ]

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