Cold Pizza
| Cold Pizza | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Brian Hegner Rob Katko David Wexler |
| Starring |
Jay Crawford Kit Hoover Thea Andrews Dana Jacobson Woody Paige Skip Bayless |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 2 hours |
| Release | |
| Original network | ESPN2 (2003–2007) |
| Original release | October 20, 2003 – May 4, 2007 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | ESPN First Take |
Cold Pizza was a television sports morning talk show that aired weekdays on ESPN2. The show's style was more akin to Good Morning America than SportsCenter's straight news and highlights format. It included daily sports news, interviews with sports journalists, athletes, and personalities, and an assortment of other sports and non-sports topics. This show began airing on October 20, 2003. The ESPN executive in charge of the program was James Cohen, who helped develop ESPN's popular talk show, Pardon the Interruption. The show was part of ESPN Original Entertainment overseen by ESPN programming chief Mark Shapiro The executive producer/creator was Brian Donlon and he was assisted by Consulting Producer Steve Friedman, who oversaw NBC's Today Show during some of its most innovative and highly rated periods. The program was produced at Atlantic Video which was overseen by Todd Mason.
The original co-hosts were Jay Crawford and Kit Hoover with Thea Andrews serving as correspondent and Leslie Maxie as the news anchor. When it launched on Oct. 20, 2003 it started at 7 am ET, but moved to 8 am just short of its one-year anniversary in an attempt to get male viewers who may be awaking a little later. The show repeated at 10 am for the West Coast and often updated the show for the west coast feed.
Although Cold Pizza was simulcast on ESPN2HD, it was not produced or presented in high definition. On October 2, 2006, DirecTV became the presenting sponsor with the show titled as Cold Pizza presented by DirecTV.
In the fall of 2004, in an attempt to heighten the sports news content of the program, newspaper columnists Woody Paige and Skip Bayless were added in a series of segments called 1st & 10. Moderated by Crawford, the segment aired four times per show covering 10 topics (just like in football where teams have four downs to cover 10 yards for a first down). Paige and Bayless would debate, discuss and cajole each other on the sports headlines of the day. By December 2004, re-edited segments and new wraps were transformed into a new half-hour program using the same name which aired on ESPN at 3 pm ET.
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