ESPN's Michael Smith will reportedly no longer host the 6pm ET edition of SportsCenter, according to multiple reports, and tonight will be his last night hosting the show.
The news comes a little over one month after Smith's former co-host Jemele Hill left the show to work with The Undefeated, a sports and pop culture website owned and operated by ESPN. Not long after Hill's departure, Smith appeared on James Andrew Miller's Origins podcast, and revealed how frustrated he was with the way things played out on SC:6, including how the network "muted" the two hosts.
“We knew we were gonna get shit out of the gate. … But we weren’t built to take it,” Smith told Miller. “Immediately we started pushing the panic button. Instead of saying no, this is the vision for this show, this is what we’re doing. This show is about Michael and Jemele and their opinions and their chemistry, and they’re going to do SportsCenter their way. Instead of sticking to that vision, we immediately tried to merge two things."
“It was very frustrating,” Smith added, “behind the scenes and on camera. … They got what they wanted, which was Michael and Jemele being muted. And that frustrated the shit out of us.”
According to USA Today Sports, ESPN executive vice president Norby Williamson released the following statement, "Michael is a talented commentator and we greatly appreciate and value his contributions and creativity. We are in the process of discussing with him potential next ESPN assignments."
Williamson also tells USA Today Sports that SportsCenter will feature a variety of anchors until permanent replacements are determined.
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