Cold Pizza
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Cold Pizza | |
|---|---|
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| Genre | Sports |
| Starring | Jay Crawford Dana Jacobson Skip Bayless |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Production | |
| Running time | 2 hours |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ESPN2 (2003-) |
| Original run | October 20, 2003 – Present |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Mike and Mike in the Morning |
| Followed by | Cold Pizza (repeat) |
| Links | |
| Official website | |
Cold Pizza is a television morning sports talk show that airs weekday mornings on ESPN2 and is also the network's flagship program. The show's format includes daily sports news, interviews with sports journalists, athletes, and personalities, and an assortment of other sports and non-sports topics. This show began airing on October 20, 2003. Although Cold Pizza is simulcast on ESPN2HD, it is not produced or presented in high definition. On October 2, 2006, DirecTV became the presenting sponsor and the show is now entitled Cold Pizza presented by DirecTV.
Two back-to-back two-hour episodes are aired each weekday from Monday through Friday, with the live episode airing at 10 a.m. ET and lasts two hours till noon. The show is repeated at 12 p.m. ET. The show is hosted by former SportsCenter personality, Dana Jacobson, who joined the program in 2005, and Jay Crawford, who has been with the show since it debuted. Skip Bayless contributes during the "1st and 10" segments. Woody Paige, who had been his antagonist during those segments, left after the episode that aired on November 28, 2006 citing health and personal reasons leaving New York to go to the Denver Post.
The show is currently taped live at the Manhattan Center in New York City, and the set features an informal kitchen/garage/living room layout. It also makes heavy use of "beauty shots" of New York City. However, on January 25, 2007, ESPN announced that in June 2007, Cold Pizza and 1st and 10 will both move to ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut and will be broadcast in high definition on ESPN2HD, and Cold Pizza will be renamed ESPN's First Take.
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[edit] History
Kit Hoover, Thea Andrews, and former Olympian Leslie Maxie were the original co-hosts along with Crawford, but Maxie and Hoover were reassigned by ESPN and later dropped due to lack of a sports broadcasting background. Thea Andrews was briefly reassigned before she left the company to work for CBS.
The show previously began as a one hour show at 7 a.m. ET, with the repeat following. Then in 2004 it expanded to a two hour show starting at 8 a.m. ET and a repeat following. In 2006, ESPN2 started airing a simulcast of Mike and Mike in the Morning, the morning program from 6 a.m. ET to 10 a.m. ET on ESPN Radio, which pushed Cold Pizza back to 10 a.m. ET.
Cold Pizza was notable for having its own version of ESPN's BottomLine, as their ticker not only gave sports scores, but also news headlines and weather forecasts from sports cities and is shown in its own color scheme. It also functioned differently: it constantly scrolled, while other ESPN "BottomLines" usually "flip" through the different scores, scrolling only for long statistical lines. This graphic was discontinued in the summer of 2006, and the "BottomLine" now resembles those of other ESPN programs, as noted in the "Format" section below.
The program has gone on site for games and events quite often. On the road shows have included trips to Super Bowls XXXIX and XL and the Caesars Palace hotel and casino in Las Vegas. At one point, part of Friday's shows originated from the College Gameday site. They went to New Orleans on September 25 for the re-opening of the Louisiana Superdome when the New Orleans Saints returned home to play the Atlanta Falcons.
Guests on the show have included Senator John McCain, Hank Aaron, Pete Rose, Dennis Rodman, Jose Canseco, Senator Tom Davis, Mike Krzyzewski, Nick Lachey and even the man that caught Barry Bonds' 715th home run ball.
[edit] Moving to Bristol
On January 25, 2007 MediaWeek reported that ESPN would announce Cold Pizza's move from New York to the ESPN campus in Bristol, Connecticut.[1] In addition to being able to produce the program in high definition, officials hope that bringing the show in-house will enhance it by allowing more live appearances by ESPN analysts (as opposed to satellite or telephone interviews). However, the move will reduce the amount of live appearances by celebrities and non-sports figures. Crawford, Jacobson and Bayless are expected to remain the hosts and it is unknown what the set will look like or feature.[2]. When the show moves to Bristol it will be renamed ESPN's First Take[3]
[edit] Format
From the show's inception through 2005, its format was similar to traditional network television morning shows such as Good Morning America and The Today Show, featuring discussion among the hosts on entertainment and sports topics. After poor initial ratings, the format was changed to be similar to that of SportsCenter and Pardon the Interruption, including sports headlines, analysis, and debate. Because of the format change, hosts Hoover and Maxie were let go due to lack of a sports journalism background, and Jacobson, Paige, and Bayless joined. Co-host Andrews was transferred by ESPN to Los Angeles to host ESPN2's new evening entertainment news show, ESPN Hollywood. That show was cancelled in January 2006, and Andrews remained with ESPN until November 2006, when she left the company to work as a correspondent for Entertainment Tonight.
The current format of the program features the introduction graphic introducing the hosts and a show rundown. Following that is "The Top Story" of the sports world and an appropriate guest. This is followed by the "Morning Headlines," which include about four or five news items from around sports. The headline segment is repeated at the top of the second hour.
At 20 and 40 past the first and second hour, Crawford, Bayless and a guest contributor are featured in a segment entitled "1st and 10." The "Morning Slice," a look at offbeat sports video, is also part of the program; it is sometimes called "Suzuki Way of Life" after the car and ATV manufacturer that sponsors it.
Cold Pizza started using ESPN's standard BottomLine on June 9, 2006, which now does the same as the other BottomLine siblings (except that the Cold Pizza and ESPN2 logos rotate, along with the time of day in each of the 4 time zones). On February 12, 2007, the ticker was changed again, with the background on the bottom right hand corner now red instead of blue (as part of an overall rebranding) and the time of day no longer displayed.
The backbone of the show is the numerous guest segments. They are a mix of studio, satellite, and telephone interviews.
[edit] Personalities
[edit] Current
- Skip Bayless: (Contributor, September 9, 2004-present)
- Jay Crawford: (Co-host, October 20, 2003-present)
- Dana Jacobson: (Co-host, March 2005-present)
[edit] Former
- Thea Andrews: (Co-host, October 20, 2003-2005)
- Kit Hoover: (Co-host, October 20, 2003-2005)
- Leslie Maxie: (Co-host, October 20, 2003-2004)
- Woody Paige: (Contributor, August 12, 2004-November 28, 2006)
[edit] Fill-ins
- Linda Cohn: (Co-host, 2006)
- Jay Harris: (Co-host, 2005)
- Tom Rinaldi: (Co-host, 2006-2007)
- Ahmad Rashad: (Co-host, 2006
- Jeremy Schaap: (Co-host, 2005-2006)
- Matt Winer: (Co-host, 2006)
- Josh Elliott: (Co-host, 2006-2007)
[edit] Segments
[edit] Daily
- Morning Headlines: This is a segment at the very beginning of each hour with Jacobson and Crawford run down the biggest headlines in the sports world.
- Heres the Latest: This segment is similar to Morning Headlines, but this informs veiwers on the latest injury update and the latest on a developing story.
- The Top Story: This is at the brginning of the show when they go indepth about a developing story and discuss it with insiders on the situation.
- 1st and 10: This segment appears for different times during the program, when Crawford, Bayless, and a guest analyst debate some of the hottest topics in sports. This also airs at 3:00 p.m. ET on ESPN as its own show.
- Morning Slice: This is when one of the hosts delivers an off the wall story. Sometimes called "Suzuki Way of Life."
- Top Plays:This segment appears at different times throughout the show when they run down the top five plays of the day.
- Cover Two: This is when they are joined by two NFL columists from all over the country to discuss different news and notes.
- Full Court Press: This is when they are joined by two NBA columists from all over the country to discuss different news and notes.
- Double Play: This is when they are joined by two MLB columists from all over the country to discuss different news and notes.
- SportsNation Question of the Day: This is a multiple-choice question for which fans get to vote at ESPN.com. The hosts give the result of the vote at the end of the show.
- NBA Minute: Highlights from the previous nights best games usually about 10 to 12 seconds per game for a total of 5 or 6 highlights.
[edit] Weekly
- Couch Potato: Every Friday, Howie Schwab, ESPN’s resident trivia guru, runs down the weekend's sports television viewing and Howie rates each of his choices with bags of chips, with five bags being the highest rating.
- The Gamers: Reviews of video games, also on Fridays. Sundance DiGiovanni, the president of Major League Gaming, is the contributor to this segment.
- Gizmo Girl: This segment appears weekly when they are joined by a guest to discuss a type of product that relates to sports.
- The Great Throwdini: This appears every Friday, when The Great Throwdini picks three NFL games by throwing knives blind folded at the teams logo.
- Plays of the Week: The top plays of the week, set to music.
- The Must List: Personal picks from Entertainment Weekly editor Peter Bonventre, every Thursday.
- Sports Doc: This is the weekly segment when Cold Pizza's sports medicine contributor Jonathan Glashow, MD gives analysis on one of the big injuries in the sports world. During the NFL season, it is called "Diagnosis NFL" and he is joined by Newsday columnist Bob Glauber.
[edit] Former
- When the show began, former NBA all-star Darryl Dawkins served as the gadget, fitness and relationship guru in a segment called Planet Lovetron. That was discontinued pretty early in the first season.
- Zach Lebovitz also contributed to the show at the halfway point when he mocked sideline reporters by graded Crawford and Hoover's performance in the first half of the show. That was also discontinued pretty early on.
- After ESPN Hollywood was cancel'ed, Thea Andrews briefly hosted a segment of the latest news of the convergence between the sports and entertainment worlds. The tightened focus on sports news resulted in an end to that segment; however, actors and other performers still stop by the Cold Pizza studios from time to time to pitch their projects and share their love of sports.
[edit] Controversy
In February 2006, Texas Tech head basketball coach Bobby Knight was promoting a new reality show for ESPN entitled Knight School. Jacobson asked Knight at the end of the interview if he was interested in returning to his old coaching job at Indiana University. This made Knight angry, which ultimately led to him walking out of the interview. Jacobson was not at work the next day, but not because of the Knight incident; she had a planned vacation day, according to the network.
[edit] Pre-emptions and cancellations
- One day in October 2005, the entire show was not seen. Crawford explained that unspecified technical difficulties made the show impossible to produce that day. ESPNEWS was simulcast on ESPN2 instead.
- Twice, Cold Pizza's rebroadcast has ended early due to breaking news: on September 27, 2006, due to conflicting reports as to whether Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens had attempted to commit suicide; and on November 17, 2006, when college football coach Bo Schembechler died from a heart attack. In both cases, SportsCenter was simulcast in the remainder of the scheduled time slot.
- On the other hand, an altered, non-commercial version of the show was simulcast by ESPN on January 22, 2007 during the usual re-air slot, due to the resignation of Dallas Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells that was disclosed just before the end of the live show. This altered program ran from noon to 1:30 p.m. ET.
- On January 8, 2007 a mysterious gas-like odor was detected throughout New York City. Several buildings, including the Manhattan Center (where the show is produced) were evacuated.[4] Cold Pizza was replaced with a simulcast of ESPNEWS, with the Mike & Mike Bottom Line informing viewers that "Cold Pizza will return Tuesday." The timing of this pre-emption was unfortunate, because it was the day after the NFL wild card playoff games and the morning of the BCS National Championship Game.
[edit] Trivia
Hosts Jay Crawford and Dana Jacobson will often show their love of their hometown and home state sports teams, with Jay supporting Cleveland and Ohio teams while Dana roots for her native Detroit and Michigan teams. This is most evident around the days preceding college football games between heated rivals Michigan and Ohio State, even though Crawford is actually a graduate of Bowling Green State University. Jacobson, though, is a graduate of the University of Michigan.
The name "Cold Pizza" is a nod to a common term for leftover pizza that probably came from college dormitory rooms. In other words, what happened yesterday is being reviewed today.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003537947
- ^ http://media.espn.com/ESPNToday/index.jsp?content=content.html
- ^ http://thebiglead.com/?p=1910
- ^ http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/N/NYC_GAS_ODOR?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=NORTHEAST
[edit] External links
- Cold Pizza: The Morning Show With Everything
- Cold Pizza at the Internet Movie Database
- Jump The Shark - Cold Pizza
- Cold Pizza - TWoP Forums
