Michelle Beadle is leaving Sportsnation.

[Mrs. Sawyer]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/05/espn-announces-that-michelle-beadle-will-leave-network/1#.T79WqtVrO8A

NEW YORK -- ESPN could lose its two most popular female sports personalities. Michelle Beadle, co-host of the SportsNation afternoon show with Colin Cowherd, is leaving, ESPN President John Skipper confirmed Tuesday at the network's upfront presentation in Times Square.

By Katy Winn, Getty Images for IMG

Sideline reporter Erin Andrews' contract is up too. She's in negotiations on a new deal. But Andrews has appeared on Dancing with the Stars, done entertainment coverage for sister Disney network ABC and starred in ad campaigns for Reebok and Diet Mountain Dew. It remains to be seen whether she has outgrown sports.

ESPN got good some news on the talent front late Monday when rising star Scott Van Pelt, a longtime SportsCenter anchor and host of The Scott Van Pelt Show on ESPN Radio, verbally agreed to a new multiyear deal.

"Michelle did a great job. We love Michelle. We wish her well. We're sorry she's leaving," said Skipper about Beadle, who hosted the Disney-owned sports network's annual upfront presentation to advertisers last year. "We worked hard to try to keep her but she has some different aspirations."

Beadle is jumping to Disney rival Comcast's NBC Universal, where she'll work on Olympic coverage and Access Hollywood, according to TheBigLead.com. ESPN is looking internally to fill Beadle's SportsNation co-host role. "We have a deep bench," said Skipper.

Andy Elkin, Beadle's agent at Creative Artists Agency, declined to comment as did NBC.

Beadle's the latest in a long line of ESPN talent who've jumped ship lately for competitors, including Jim Rome and Bruce Feldman to CBS and Pat Forde to Yahoo! But Skipper denied ESPN is experiencing a brain drain of talent.

The network has close to 1,000 employees who appear on-air or on the radio, or write for ESPN The Magazine. The vast majority of them stay long term, he said. With ESPN serving as the "farm system" for the TV sports business, it's inevitable that rivals will raid Bristol for talent, he said, or for talent to use ESPN as a club to leverage themselves raises and promotions.

Said Skipper: "Getting excited about people leaving is very overrated -- whether it be executives or on-air. Mostly it gives somebody else a chance to shine. I can't think of a single instance where losing a talent has been significantly debilitating to a specific program. I don't think we've ever canceled a program because we couldn't find somebody to do it."

She's my favorite female on ESPN. It's sad to see her leave since Sportsnation is such a great show.

 

[runawayboulder]

I don't really watch Sportsnation but I've seen Michelle before and she's pretty cool. She just did a walk-on last week on ATH during the showdown segment.

ESPN sucks these days anyway, it's a good career move. Actually, ESPN has sucked for a long while. Too many hacks over there and way to much sensationalism. I turned on First Take the other day for the first time in a while and it was some of the worst sports television I've ever seen.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

You don't want to watch First Take. It is pretty bad. Stephen A Smith yells way too much and gets too confrontational while Skip is..... well.... Skip.

There are three shows I love though from ESPN. Mike and Mike, Pardon the Interruption and Sportsnation, mostly because of Beadle and Cowherd (who I warmed up to a lot since the beginning of SN). She's pretty much the female on ESPN who actually knows her stuff.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

this came out a few weeks ago. I like Beadle. Good for her that she gets to leave the ESPN cesspool.

 

[runawayboulder]

You don't want to watch First Take. It is pretty bad. Stephen A Smith yells way too much and gets too confrontational while Skip is..... well.... Skip.

There are three shows I love though from ESPN. Mike and Mike, Pardon the Interruption and Sportsnation, mostly because of Beadle and Cowherd (who I warmed up to a lot since the beginning of SN). She's pretty much the female on ESPN who actually knows her stuff.

It was 2 morons just yelling at each other. It was no debate, just yelling. Sensationalism at it's finest. I thought I was watching Fox News for a second.

I only watch ATH and PTI anymore. I still think they have a good Baseball Tonight crew and some of the "insiders" for other sports are OK (like Tim Legler) but at least 70% of their Sportcenter anchors are terrible.

 

[Darthphere]

Good riddance. She was getting annoying with her Miami hate.


Also, what the hell happened to Numbers Never Lie? Remember when they had a whole bunch of nerds on there throwing out statistics? Now it's just 1st and 10 lite.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

She's cute, but I quit watching the show a long time ago because her co-host is a jackass.

 

[BatSpider]

Great, she'll become one of those plastic souless hosts on Access Hollywood

 

[TheOnlyOmega]

Let the Charissa Thompson era begin.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Good riddance. She was getting annoying with her Miami hate.


Also, what the hell happened to Numbers Never Lie? Remember when they had a whole bunch of nerds on there throwing out statistics? Now it's just 1st and 10 lite.

Her hatred for them isn't as bad her hatred for Dwight Howard.

It got sensationalist. ESPN really needs a rival network. They've become like tabloids for sports.

It was 2 morons just yelling at each other. It was no debate, just yelling. Sensationalism at it's finest. I thought I was watching Fox News for a second.

I only watch ATH and PTI anymore. I still think they have a good Baseball Tonight crew and some of the "insiders" for other sports are OK (like Tim Legler) but at least 70% of their Sportcenter anchors are terrible.

Very true.

She's cute, but I quit watching the show a long time ago because her co-host is a jackass.

The funny thing is that I used to hate listening to Colin Cowherd until Sportsnation. She made him tolerable.

I also like Cowherd's million analogies he has.

 

[Raiden]

It's too bad that she's leaving ESPN, but I think the network gets so much exposure that it is inevitable that some of their talents are using them to get a bigger contract elsewhere. And while I'm not saying that ESPN doesn't have flaws, I'd still much rather watch them than NBC/Comcast or Fox Sports anytime. Those networks are more than welcome to try to knock ESPN off their pedestal, but I just don't see that happening because they suck and people don't watch them unless it's a sports event they want to watch.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Which is why the only way to do it is start slowly stealing contracts away. They're not going to get the big ones, but there are still others that ESPN doesn't have, like NHL and some college football contracts.

 

[WalkingDeadMike]

I've loved Beadle ever since she used to do the Nets' pre and post game shows.

She knows her stuff, has a great "bubbly" personality, and is really hot.

 

[kane9321]

Oh she hates Dwight Howard with a passion
I love it

 

[runawayboulder]

It's real easy to hate Dwight Howard lately.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Oh she hates Dwight Howard with a passion
I love it

Her Dwight Howard hate is downright hilarious, mostly because he deserves it.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

It's too bad that she's leaving ESPN, but I think the network gets so much exposure that it is inevitable that some of their talents are using them to get a bigger contract elsewhere. And while I'm not saying that ESPN doesn't have flaws, I'd still much rather watch them than NBC/Comcast or Fox Sports anytime. Those networks are more than welcome to try to knock ESPN off their pedestal, but I just don't see that happening because they suck and people don't watch them unless it's a sports event they want to watch.

many of us would say the same thing about ESPN.

 

[runawayboulder]

CBS and NBC are the only ones that get sports right anymore.

 

[Darthphere]

How exactly do they do that?

 

[runawayboulder]

Mainly by their presentation and quality of announcers/studio analysts.

 

[Erzengel]

Huh?

CBS with Shannon Sharpe?

NBC with Harrison and Tony Dungy?

I'm glad the Giants play on Fox most of the time.

Oh and....

 

[runawayboulder]

So, you've named 3 people out of like 50. What about Nantz, Costas, Al Michaels, Collinsworth, Simms, Clark Kellogg.....? Hell, Ian Eagle is better than half the Fox guys and most of the ABC/ESPN guys. They only announcers from those networks I consider any good are Aikman, Mike Breen and JVG.

 

[Erzengel]

Simms?

One who was wondering why no Owner was calling Arians?

Nantz tries too hard.

Collinsworth is so full of himself.

Eagles? Never really seems to explain why things breakdown on the field.

I don't mind Costas, Michaels.

I think the Fox guys have the best pre and half and post shows.

I really can't stand Aikman and Buck and their anti NY attitudes.

 

[runawayboulder]

I don't buy Aikman being anti NY. I've watched him do over 100 Giants games and I've never got that feeling from him. I think he's been pretty fair to them and he seems to be a fan of Coughlin and Eli. I think this all stems from fans that are still pissed about how he used to destroy the G-Men on the field.

Buck is annoying. He's better with calling football than baseball but he's still awful at both.

 

[Erzengel]

And one of if not the greatest play during the Super Bowl immortalized by Buck and Aikman.

“Pressure from Thomas off the edge…Eli Manning stays on his feet…airs it out down the field…it is caught by Tyree…inside the 25…and a timeout taken.” [/monotone]