As a younger generation of sports fans increasingly turned to YouTube and other online sources for game highlights, ESPN’s “SportsCenter” appeared to be on borrowed time in 2015.
It’s why the Walt Disney Co. unit turned to Scott Van Pelt to put a new spin on the late-night edition of its flagship program. The veteran ESPN radio host and golf reporter provided a dry wit and a conversational vibe that in short order soon attracted more younger viewers than the traditional desk and sofa shows on the broadcast networks.
The competitive landscape has only become more challenging as pay-TV cord-cutting and streaming take their toll on legacy media. But Van Pelt, who entered his 10th season this month, is still thriving as ESPN has turned his “SportsCenter” into a post-game show for its biggest events, including “Monday Night Football.”
Van Pelt often gets tune-in the old fashioned way, with massive audience lead-ins from the live events that have become even more vital to ESPN as the network competes with streamers and prepares for a post-cable world where it will be available as a direct-to-consumer offering.
Van Pelt’s “SportsCenter” averaged 6.3 million viewers on April 5 when it followed the NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four game between University of Connecticut and Iowa, the most-viewed episode in the show’s history according to Nielsen data. The program scored 3.4 million viewers when it aired after the College Football Playoff championship game on Jan. 8. It hit 2.2 million viewers or more three times following NFL games last season.
The stars show up as a result. Van Pelt did his show from the U.S. Open Tennis Championship in Queens, N.Y., this year for the first time. After one of his wins, Novak Djokovic showed at the “SportsCenter” desk, grinning like a super-fan.
The show also remains appointment viewing for its signature segment, “Bad Beats,” a “Scared Straight” for gamblers where Van Pelt and sidekick Stanford Steve Coughlin riff on clips showing supposedly sure bets that go awry.
At 58, he is the father of three young children, which keeps him connected to the new ways of video consumption that are a galaxy away from his analog upbringing.
“I was the remote,” Van Pelt told The Times during a recent conversation at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn. “‘Hey Buzz, turn it to channel 4 ‘ — in the days of the big-ass Zenith that weighed seven tons.”
While ESPN looks to evolve, Van Pelt is along for the ride but isn’t about to change his act.
You still show up on television like you’re a guest in someone’s home. A suit, a tie, a pocket square. When you look at the popularity of Pat McAfee’s ESPN show, which looks like they’re a in rec room but attracts major guests, do you feel any pressure to do your show differently to attract a younger demographic?
I think guests recognize that these are immensely popular places to go. I think Pat and his crew create a comfortable space for conversation. It’s different than anywhere else by design. My grandpa wore pocket squares. This is my ode to him. If I’m doing a television show, this is how I will present myself because that’s just how I always have. I’m in my late 50s. If I start showing up in a tank top or a hoodie and whatever else, it would be like that Steve Buscemi meme where he says, “Hey, fellow kids.”
I believe we’ve successfully created a very comfortable place for the host, for the audience and I believe for the coaches and players that join us. They know what our show is. They understand it’s morphed largely into a post-game show for the biggest events we have and what I think what we find is that you’re getting people to stick around in those big-event moments and because they understand what they’re going to get.
Athletes are taking control of their content. They are doing their own podcasts and TikTok videos. Does that pose any kind of challenge to you when they come on your show and you’re trying to get good stuff out of them in interviews?
I have had the benefit of having done this so long. We had Caitlin Clark on this year. I’ve never met Caitlin Clark. But she was very gracious, and as we were waiting to come on, she’s telling me, “I’ve watched you forever. It’s so cool to be on.” And you realize that, “Jesus, I’m the old guy.” I’ve done this her whole life. You might be talking to someone for the first time, but they’re not meeting a stranger.
In no way do I see myself as like some Johnny Carson figure. I’m exactly the same on the air as I am talking to you right now. So I think what happens is, I’m pretty accessible to the person. I’m not trying to get anything out of you other than the answers to the questions I have. And because I’m asking you typically with your jersey still on and sweat still on your shoulders, I get that raw reaction to, “You just made it to another Final Four,” and then probed the things that matter in that space. If I can’t get good content, then that’s my fault.
When you started there was not a huge amount of sports gambling talk on TV. Now with apps — including ESPN Bet — we’ve all become degenerates.
We’re in the bookmaking business. Who would have dreamt?
You’re in the promotions for ESPN Bet. Do you use the app?
I don’t. I’ve never been an app-based gambler. I was the guy that had a guy.
Are you still using a bookie?
No, that would be illegal, wouldn’t it? I’d never doing anything illegal. God forbid. Who would do that?
Was it a tough sell to get that segment on at the time?
When I talked to (former ESPN programming executive) John Wildhack before our show started and I told him I’m going to do a segment called “Bad Beats,” he didn’t blink. I give him a ton of credit because it wasn’t legal in the way that it is now. I didn’t know that it would become the most popular thing that we do on our show.
“Bad Beats” is the thing people always bring up, and I’ll ask, “Do you gamble?” And oftentimes they’ll say, “No, I just love seeing like how these things could possibly go wrong.” It doesn’t seem like it could really happen like this. I tell them it happens every day.
And it’s funny.
There’s something about shared misery. We laugh to keep from crying. In my office in Washington, D.C., I have a bet slip for the all-timer of all-timers: Virginia and Abilene Christian. Abilene Christian was getting 38 1/2 points and they lost on the last play of the (college football) game. It was the most preposterous thing you’ve ever seen, and Stanford Steve says on the show, “Who bet on this game?” A man from Kentucky mailed me his bet slip. It’s the reminder some poor schmuck had Abilene Christian, and so we owe it to that man to properly document what happened and try our best to laugh in a way that’s comforting.
