Jemele Hill & Michael Smith To Host ESPN’s “SportsCenter” In 2017

 

Source: Jesse Grant/BET / Getty

For those who live with a sports fan or who themselves click on ESPN as soon as they hit the door, next year promises a sea of brown on the early-evening edition of SportsCenter.

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The day after Super Bowl LI, February 6, 2017, Michael Smith and Jemele Hill, current hosts of His & Hers, will be the new hosts of the 6 p.m. SportsCenter hour.

Smith and Hill, who have co-hosted His & Hers on ESPN2 since June of 2013, will replace Lindsay Czarniak, who will go on maternity leave in November and return next year in a new role, according to Variety. Both hosts have reportedly signed new, multi-year deals with the Walt Disney-owned sports network.

Both Hill and Smith took to social media yesterday to respond to the outpouring of support in light of the announcement. Both said that they were not going to change in their new roles.

The response has been overwhelming. This is an exciting move for us. I promise we’ll remain the same. Wait, is that good lol?

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) October 11, 2016

Smith even put up an Instagram post that went back to “the beginning.”

Wow. Not even sure where to begin. Why not the beginning? We just wanted to work together. We thought maybe people might enjoy listening to us talk to each other. And now, four years after the first @hisherspodcast , @jemelehill and I will take @espnhishers to the 6 p.m. @sportscenter. (Link in bio.) Don’t worry. We aren’t changing, not retiring His & Hers. We’ll just be at a different time and on a different channel. You’ll still get your #best60. And, yes, we will still drop the O.G. podcast. (Hopefully more than one a month ) So thank you for watching, recording, listening, and downloading. Thank you for supporting us and sticking with us. Thank you for spreading the word about us. Y’all show us so much love and it truly is appreciated. The outpouring of congratulations this afternoon has been overwhelming. We are grateful for the many colleagues and producers, family members and friends who helped to make this possible for a guy from New Orleans and a girl from Detroit. And thank you @espn for trusting us to carry on the tradition. What would Stuart and John say?!?! Lastly, but most important, here’s what all of you need to take from this: Trust God. Always. He has plans for you beyond your wildest dreams and imagination. When He has blessings stored up for you, they’re yours. Nobody can take them and not even you can mess it up. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Trip part about all this is Jemele and I never thought of or asked to go to SC – this was brought to us! We were just minding our business one day when this was dropped in our laps. So the moral is no matter how frustrated you may be with where you are or what you may be going through don’t be discouraged – your big blessing/breakthrough is coming! Individually and as a team y’all know J and I have been through A LOT to get here. A. LOT. Through all the (mostly) ups and a few downs, it’s been a fun ride. But the best is yet to come.

A photo posted by Michael Smith (@themichaelsmith) on Oct 11, 2016 at 2:40pm PDT

ESPN’s senior vice president of SportsCenter and news, Rob King, said Smith and Hill will focus on contextualizing the day’s sports headlines rather than just talking about breaking news, and the tone of the show will be more conversational.

SOURCE: Variety, Twitter, IG | PHOTO: Getty

Jemele Hill & Michael Smith To Host ESPN’s “SportsCenter” In 2017  was originally published on newsone.com