debuted on
October 1 ,
1993 , as a sister station of
ESPN . Nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was to be branded as a network for a younger generation of
Sport s fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like
Motocross ,
Snowboarding , and
BMX racing. This mandate was phased out by 2001, as the channel increasingly served as a second outlet for ESPN's mainstream sports coverage.
The original ESPN2 graphics featured the letters "ESPN" in several fonts, one of which was its traditional script, with the only consistency being the '2' that looked like spray painted
Graffiti . On-screen graphics used an odd font with random capital letters, as "tHis iS aN ExAMplE". No announcers wore ties and traditional sports had "deuce names",
NASCAR was "Hell on Wheels", the
NHL was "Fire on Ice", and so on.
The first program on ESPN2 was '' and
Kenny Mayne .
In its early years, ESPN2 was used for some experimental sports broadcasts. On
September 18 ,
1994 , ESPN covered the
CART Nazareth 200, and ESPN2 featured a live simulcast with an all on-board camera broadcast. ESPN2 featured several half-hour news programs focused on specific sports, such as ''
NFL 2Night '' (
Football ), ''
NHL 2Night '' (
Hockey ), and ''
RPM 2Night '' (
Auto Racing ). As early as
1996 , ESPN2 debuted a sports
News Ticker , dubbed the "BottomLine," which was present throughout almost the entire day, rather than just at the top and bottom of the hour as it has been done on
ESPN . ESPN2's sports telecasts were also among the first to regularly use a
Scoring Bug .
Though the "ESPN2 Attitude" was one of the main inspirations for launching the
X Games , this format was, in an overall sense, not successful as no one watched it. The so-called
MTV Generation was not interested in sports pandered to them in this way, and traditional sports fans were turned off by the youthful gimmick, and several cable companies still refused to include ESPN2 in their basic lineups. The channel was then reformatted.
Beginning in 2001, ESPN2 began to offer much of the same programming as ESPN, often airing spill over programs from "The Mothership." Graphics and announcer dress became nearly the same as ESPN, only using blue where ESPN uses red, plus the addition of the "2" at the end of the logo. The blue color scheme changed to red in 2007.
Sports events presented on ESPN2 tend to be alternative sports such as
Poker ,
Billiards ,
Lumberjack ing,
Extreme Sports and, more recently,
Drum And Bugle Corps . However, in recent years ESPN2 has broadcast increasingly more mainstream sporting events, including much of the
2006 World Baseball Classic , many
Major League Soccer , and
NCAA Basketball games,
WNBA on Tuesdays.
NASCAR Busch Series races on Saturday afternoons, and the
Grand Slam Tennis tournaments the
Australian Open ,
The French Open and
Wimbledon .
ESPN2's flagship show, the morning sports/entertainment program ''
Cold Pizza '', has achieved minimal success and seen several format and host changes. In
January 2006 , it was supplanted by the TV simulcast of
ESPN Radio 's
Mike And Mike In The Morning (which moved from
ESPNEWS ) and moved to a later time slot (10a-12n EST). In
May 2007 , ''Cold Pizza'' moved from New York City to the ESPN headquarters in Bristol, and was renamed ''
ESPN First Take ''.
''.
Every Saturday morning on ESPN2 is "Bass Saturday" which Bass Fishing programs are shown.
The "2" does not feature the signature stripe through the font like the other letters in the logo. ESPN's sports ticker, the "BottomLine", continues to run at the bottom of the screen, featured on all ESPN2 programs, whereas ESPN still only features the ticker during its highlights programs and at :18 and :58 on the hour during live game coverage. ESPN2 now appears in 89
Million homes in the
United States , eleven million fewer than
ESPN .
On
February 1 ,
2007 , the sports-media blog
Deadspin reported that ESPN2 branding will be soon dropped entirely, in favor of ESPN, for the channel's in-game graphics, similar to the current ESPN branding on
ABC Sports Broadcasts . The ESPN2 brand would be retained only for identification between the two channels, such as in the BottomLine.http://www.deadspin.com/sports/espn/the-last-days-of-espn2-233272.php This change took place in full effect on February 12, 2007, as all on-air graphics (scorebox, transitional, mic flags, etc.) began using the ESPN logo rather than the ESPN2 logo. Another, more subtle change was made to the BottomLine, which is now red like the version of the BottomLine used on the main network; as expected, the ESPN2 logo remained on the BottomLine to further distinguish ESPN and ESPN2.
ESPN2 has also simulcast many games with ESPN, in
ESPN Full Circle where each ESPN network (ESPN, ESPN2,
ESPNU ) carries a different camera angle or commentary of big college matchups.
ESPN2 also simulcasts some ESPNEWS programming, often during local blackouts, and for a while provided a Sunday simulcast of
ESPN Deportes ' SportsCenter.
ESPN2 also often carries ''
SportsCenter '' on days where the regular ESPN broadcast is overrun by a longer than expected sporting event.
ESPN2HD , a
High-definition simulcast of ESPN2, was available for the first time nationwide
September 9 ,
2005 , via
DirecTV . ESPN flipped the switch on ESPN2HD at the
Consumer Electronics Show in
2005 .
Both ESPN and ESPN2 carried
ABC News coverage of the
September 11, 2001 Attacks .
