GameNight

Infobox Radio Show
show_name=GameNight


imagesize=
caption=
format = Sports talk
runtime = 4 hours, weekdays
6 hours, weekends
starring = Freddie Coleman
Jeff Rickard
John Seibel
country = flagicon|United States USA
home_station = ESPN Radio (1992-)
first_aired = January 1, 1992
last_aired = Present
website = [http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/show?showId=gamenight GameNight]

"GameNight" is a nightly sports talk radio show hosted by various personalities such as Freddie Coleman and Ryen Russillo. "GameNight" is regarded as being the flagship series of ESPN Radio, being the network's first longform program and airing every night since the network's 1992 debut until July 21, 2008. On that day the weeknight run was replaced by Football Tonight and SportsCenter Nightly. Now the show airs Saturdays from 8pm ET to 12am and Sunday's from 10pm to 1am ET. The program features in-game updates, guests ranging from superstars to experts, and in-depth analysis on the day's sports stories. It is broadcast from ESPN Headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut.

Guests on "GameNight", include Mel Kiper Jr., John Clayton, Chris Mortensen, Ric Bucher, Tim Kurkjian and Eric Byrnes. Fill-in hosts for "GameNight" include Andy Gresh, Dari Nowkhah and Amy Lawrence. The most notable former host is Chuck Wilson, who was on the program from its debut to July 2005, when his contract expired and was not extended. Other former hosts include sports personalities such as John Seibel, Doug Gottlieb, Keith Olbermann, Tony Bruno and Mike Tirico.

"ESPN Radio SportsCenter" airs every twenty minutes throughout "GameNight". The anchor is Neil Jackson, who also is the update anchor for "The V Show with Bob Valvano".

Present

Personalities

*Freddie Coleman: (regular, 2004-present)
*Ryen Russillo: (regular, 2006-present)
*Amy Lawrence: (fill-in, 2006-present)
*Andy Gresh: (fill-in, 2007-present)

Format

Beginning in late 2006, "GameNight" was cut back to four hours (and moved to a later timeslot) to make room for "The Pulse" with Doug Gottlieb, who left "GameNight" to host his own show. In 2008, the show was removed from its 10pm ET to 2am ET on weeknights and replaced by Football Tonight and Sportscenter nightly. The weekend run also was cut back an hour for an encore of The Best of Mike and Mike in the Morning. The show now airs from 8pm to 12am on Saturday and from 10pm Sunday night to 1am Monday morning ET. Jeff Rickard and Freddie Coleman host the show and, unlike the previous format, the current one is more of a traditional sports radio program with talk, debate, guests, score updates and commentary.

The fact that it was often hosted by only one host on weekdays led to some uproars from listeners until it was removed, but the two host format is still used on the weekend run.

egments

*GameNight Guarantees: This segment is on Saturday night where Andy Gresh & Freddie Coleman make their Sunday NFL picks.
*Choice Cuts: This segment is when the big calls and plays from the day's games are replayed over the air. Often during baseball season, they will play one of Ron Santo's outburst to one of the Chicago Cubs plays.
*Freddy's Bold Prediction: Started by John Seibel, each Friday night during the college football season, Freddie Coleman makes his bold prediction for an upset on Saturday.
*Freddy Coleman's GameNight Challenge: This segment appears every Sunday night when Jeff Rickard will pose Freddie Coleman multiple trivia questions from the past week in sports with respect to history.
*Monday Buzz: Somewhat of a spin-off of "Tomorrow's Headlines Tonight", each Sunday Coleman and Rickard run down the top stories that your newspapers will be covering tomorrow.
*Sound Off: This segment is when the hosts will post questions or topics and ether read or respond to phone calls and e-mails from listeners.
*Baseball Tonight, College GameNight, NBA Fastbreak and NFL Quick Hits: These are segments that that rundown all of the game scores and news from their respective leagues, such as college basketball, Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NFL.

Past

Personalities

*Keith Olbermann: (regular, 1992)
*Tony Bruno: (regular, 1992-1995)
*Mike Tirico: (regular, 1992-1996)
*Doug Gottlieb: (regular, 2003-2006)
*Chuck Wilson: (regular, 1992-2005)
*John Seibel: (regular, 2000-2006)
*Jeff Rickard: (regular, 2006-2008)

Format

Until late 2006, "GameNight" was heard every night from 7pm ET and lasted six hours till 1am ET. The program was featured full of segments including: "The Starting Lineups" at the top of every hour, "GameNight Recycles" at the top of the last hour, "The Last Word" at the end of the fifth hour, "Studs and Duds" at the end of the last hour, "Tomorrow's Headlines Tonight" at the end of the fifth hour, "Sound Off" in the middle of the fifth hour and "Choice Cuts" at the end of the last hour.

Throughout the program the hosts were also joined by contributors from around the nation giving live in-game updates of a variety odd sporting events. They were also joined by players after their games to discuss what happened in their game and what they are thinking.

egments

*Starting Lineups: This was when each host shares their views on the sports world. This segment occurs at the beginning of each hour.
*Recycles: In this segment, first five hours of the show were summarized in ten minutes. It usually included interviews with the day's biggest stars and experts with sound bites.
*The Last Word: This segment was near the end of the show when the hosts play discussions from earlier show like "Mike and Mike in the Morning" and "The Dan Patrick Show" and the hosts gave their take on how they feel about the subject.
*Tomorrow's Headlines Tonight: In this segment the hosts ran down all of the big news whether sports or not that you would be reading about that next morning, whether it's in the Sports section, the Business section or the Money sections and more.
*Studs and Duds: This is when the hosts would review all of the studs of the day and all of the duds of the day. This occurred near the end of the show.
*Fast Break Trivia: This was a trivia game in which the hosts would ask three callers five different questions, which generallyed to a common theme. All of the contestants got "ESPN Scene it" and the player who gets the most correct answers wins a Sony PlayStation 2.
*Champs or Chumps: A spin-off of "Studs or Duds", in this segment the host(s) runs down some of the top players or teams and discusses why they are a champ or a chump.

References

* [http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/show?showId=gamenight ESPN Show page]

External links

* [http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/show?showId=gamenight ESPN Show page]
* [http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/index ESPN Radio]