SportsCentre
| SportsCentre | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Also known as | 'SportsDesk (original title; 1984–2001) |
| Presented by | See below |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Location(s) | 9 Channel Nine Court, Agincourt, Toronto, Ontario |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | Varies; usually 60+ minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network |
TSN (1984–present) CTV (2007–present, during NFL season) |
| Picture format |
480i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV) |
| Original release | September 1, 1984 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
SportsCentre is a daily sports news television program, and the flagship program of the Canadian sports specialty channel TSN. The program airs several times daily on the five TSN feeds and on weekends on CTV.
The program was launched under its original title SportsDesk the same day as TSN itself debuted, on September 1, 1984. It retained that title until September 5, 2001, when the program was relaunched under a similar look and format to American cable network ESPN's flagship sportscast SportsCenter, with the title rendered in Canadian spelling. It also uses the current ESPN SportsCenter theme. The change in name occurred after majority ownership in TSN had been turned over to CTV the previous year when it acquired 80% of the network; the transaction required the approval of existing minority shareholder ESPN, which did so on the condition that TSN align its branding and programming more closely with ESPN's. Since relaunching as SportsCentre, the program has normally originated from the CTV (now Bell Media) Agincourt studios at 9 Channel Nine Court in Toronto.
On September 25, 2006, SportsCentre began broadcasting in high definition. At that time, TSN expressed hopes to have all reports from its bureaus in HD in the near future.
In the early 2010s, the program drew significant attention, including from media in the United States, for its 1 a.m. ET/morning-loop anchor team of Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole, which had taken the program in a much more irreverent and comedic direction. The Wall Street Journal published a feature story on the pair titled "Why Can't We Have Canada's 'SportsCentre'?", which compared the Onrait-O'Toole pairing to the likes of 1990s ESPN SportsCenter anchors Keith Olbermann and Craig Kilborn. The attention eventually led to Onrait, O'Toole, and their longtime producer Tim Moriarty all being hired by Fox Sports in the U.S. to help launch its new national cable channel Fox Sports 1 in 2013. Onrait and O'Toole served as hosts of Fox Sports Live, which was initially a competitor to the U.S. version of SportsCenter on ESPN (and later relaunched as a sports-oriented talk show), until February 2017 when Fox cancelled the show and allowed their contracts to expire.
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