Smith began the segment joking,”ESPN has gone out of business and we have decided to hire Erin Andrews.” He clarified that a bit later: “ESPN isn’t really closed. They still have 50,000 channels and want all of your money.” (Of course, Fox News will gladly take your money too).

As for her departure from ESPN, Andrews says, “I was there eight years and it was a difficult decision to make. But I am someone who wants to grow and learn and it is not time for me to hang it up.”

“It’s only been my first week, but I love it. It’s kind of different to be the new girl. I find myself being a little shy and reserved which will wear off fast I am sure.”

WATCH:

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It is something of a homecoming for Andrews, who started her career as a junior sports reporter at Fox Sports Florida in 2000.

At ESPN Andrews quickly became a household name to college football  and basketball fans as a sideline reporter. When she re-signed with ESPN in 2010, she added anchor duties on ESPN “College GameDay,” and also became a contributor to ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Andrews was in the news at that time because of a scandal involving a stalker, who videotaped her in hotel rooms where she was staying.

Her first story for “GMA” was about the stalking incident. She would appear on the program only a handful of times after that.

More information from Fox Sports, after the jump.

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I admire Aaron Sorkin, but he gives me a headache. By the time his characters finish a monologue, I’m ready for a nap.

Sorkin’s latest work, “The Newsroom,” which debuts Sunday on HBO, is no exception. In the pilot’s opening scene, set at a J-school panel, cable newsman Will McAvoy delivers a breathless tirade that, while eloquent, lasts longer than most network sitcoms.

In an homage to Paddy Chayefsky’s “Network,” McAvoy, played by Jeff Daniels, explodes when the moderator goads him into answering a student question about why America is the greatest country on earth. It’s not, he says, and here’s why.

Citing reams of statistics that someone in his line of work could not possibly know – another Sorkin trademark — McAvoy ends on a hopeful note. The speech will change the direction of his career from a bland ‘Jay Leno’ to a take-no-prisoners anchor of the Old School, like Murrow, Cronkite and Brinkley.

Images of those very men are in “Newsroom’s” opening montage, along with those of Dan Rather and legendary producer Don Hewitt. They are Sorkin’s heroes, he says. To that end, the underlying message of “Newsroom” is that it’s not too late to create a civil, intelligent newscast they would have been proud of.

News junkies will not be able to resist this show, despite the fact that some of the plotlines are ridiculous and that Sorkin writes like he’s getting paid by the word. Programs about the TV news business are rare. The last good one, Sorkin’s “Sports Night,” ended 12 years ago.

Sorkin reportedly based “Sports Night” on Keith Olbermann, but he’s denied that Olbermann was his muse for McAvoy.

Please. McAvoy is wicked smart, totally self-involved, highly temperamental and loathed by his staff. “I’m not the easiest guy to work for,” he tells his boss, Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston), news division president at fictional network ACN. Skinner has a short fuse and drinks a lot.

It pains me to say this, but Waterston, one of my favorite actors, is a tad old for the role. He punches out his lines like every breath will be his last. Daniels, on the other hand, is in his element,

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ESPN commentator Jon Gruden has a quirky habit — some might call it an annoying tick — of referring to players as “this guy.” Instead of calling a player by their last name, which is a widely accepted practice that goes unnoticed by viewers, Gruden will often introduce some fluff-piece factoid about a player by saying, “This guy is the toughest player I’ve ever seen” or “I think this guy is the best player I’ve seen this year.”

How often does Gruden do this? A lot. The fine folks at Sportgrid kept track during last night’s Jets-Texans preseason game, and they counted 11 instances where Gruden said “This guy.” They kindly put the instances together in a montage video.

* Gruden had a total of 11 “This Guy”s, up from 5 last week. Our tally was a bit different than this one, which had Gruden clocked in at 14 total.

* Broken down by quarter, Gruden had none in the 1st, 7 in the 2nd, 4 in the 3rd, and none in the 4th.

* Most of Gruden’s “This Guy”s occurred during a five-minute span in the 2nd quarter, leading us to believe that ESPN’s producers saw his dangerously low output from the 1st quarter and relayed a dramatic “WE NEED MORE ‘THIS GUY’S” plea into the MNF booth.

* We did not count borderline occurrences or slightly altered versions of “This Guy,” such as “These Guys” or “That Guy,” because we’re trying to do serious work here, and if we start counting such occurrences we’ll be headed down a “slippery slope.”

* All of the “This Guy”s were lead-ins to an overwhelmingly positive point about the player in question.

It could be worse. He could refer to players as “that hump,” which I’d be inclined to do.

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All 64 preseason games in HD will air multiple times in August and September, but only six are slated to get the live treatment:

Green Bay Packers vs. Cleveland Browns • Saturday, August 13 at 7:30 PM ET
New Orleans Saints vs. Houston Texans • Saturday, August 20 at 8:00 PM ET
Minnesota Vikings vs. Seattle Seahawks • Saturday, August 20 at 11:00 PM ET [Joined live in progress]
Indianapolis Colts vs. Cincinnati Bengals • Thursday, September 1 at 7:00 PM ET
Denver Broncos vs. Arizona Cardinals • Thursday, September 1 at 10:00 PM ET
Oakland Raiders vs. Seattle Seahawks • Friday, September 2 at 10:30 PM ET

NFL fans on the go can watch every preseason game on NFL.com’s NFL Preseason Live, offered at a 50% off “Back to Football” discounted price of $19.99.

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Rose will report to the Oakland County Jail on Tuesday to be housed with 1,200 other inmates.

His defense attorney had pleaded with the judge not to send Rose to jail, but to no avail.

“Jalen Rose’s whole life has been about community service,” James Burdick said. “He has accepted his responsibility from the very first day. The most difficult thing Jalen has had to do is sit down with his young children and explain what daddy has done.”

Rose, in a brief statement, said he has been “humbled and humiliated by this process.”

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Variety reports the new HBO drama will be called Da Brick and will focus on a young boxer’s upbringing in Newark, New Jersey, a city whose nickname is “The Brickyard City.” (Tyson grew up in Brooklyn.) Ellin will serve as producer, but the writing will fall to John Ridley, whose credits include the George Clooney/Ice Cube/Wahlberg film Three Kings, as well as sitcoms including The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Barbershop: The Series.

Spike Lee will direct the pilot and also serve as an executive producer.

Ridley and Ellin reportedly spent a considerable amount of time with Tyson gathering material. Ridley in turn helped recruit Lee to the project.

“John wrote an amazingly intricate script,” Ellin said. “There’s lots of places it can go. It won’t just focus on boxing.”

An actor has not yet been cast in the lead role.

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Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Times-Dispatch notes that Daytona has more than doubled the Indy ratings in many of the years since 2000. Meanwhile Indy, which is run at midday, has bested the Coca Cola 600, which is run at night, only once in the last five years.

That came in 2009, when the Coke race was rained out and run the following afternoon.

Last year the Indy 500 posted a 3.6 national television rating, in comparison to a 7.7 for the Daytona 500 and a 4.0 for the Coca Cola 600. Each ratings point represents 1 percent of homes with a TV.

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After it airs on FSN, it will be made available in full to the MLB Hall of Fame.

“This project has been a labor of love and was conceived by myself and longtime friend and Columbia Pictures colleague Herbert Allen as a way of memorializing the personal stories, insights & reflections of some of the most extraordinary players in baseball history,” said Vincent in a statement.

More information, after the jump.

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“Are we ready to have our sports information delivered by someone who’s gay? Well, you know what, we are gonna find out,” Max said. “Because for the last 16 years I’ve been living a free life among my close friends and family, and I’ve hidden behind what is a gargantuan-size secret here in the sports world. I am gay.”

The 37-year-old is the host of Maxed Out In The Morning. Max admitted to suffering through depression and suicidal thoughts while keeping his sexuality a secret.

“I don’t share this news with you today to get a reaction or to make news, of being a New York sportscaster working on an all-sports radio station,” Max said. “I do this today because it seems to me there’s never been a better time.”

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ESPN’s Erin Andrews and comedian Ron White co-host the evening meant to raise awareness and funds for those affected by the recent storms, tornadoes and ongoing flooding across the south. All money raised will go to American Red Cross Disaster Relief efforts.

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(H/T to Game On)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“Many media types I know hold the fans in contempt. It’s sad when, say, a cheese-heavy local baseball blogger thinks he knows it all but fails to see himself for what he is: a glorified stenographer with a bloated ego and a sweet gig. It’s the misguided elitism that rankles. Reporters don’t consume sports the same way fans do, and few of them have made much of an effort to understand your perspective….Boo whomever you like. Or don’t. It’s up to you. Just don’t let anyone dictate the terms of your passion. They aren’t you, and they shouldn’t pretend that they always know what’s right.”

Passively accepting the commentary of, say, Bob Costas is for lemmings from the Midwest, Gonzalez says.

“Context is important. Let’s not forget where all this supposedly unsavory conduct occurs. We don’t live in St. Paul, Minn., or St. Louis. The fans there are Stepford automatons, blinking and cheering and slobbering on cue. It’s frightening. Many of the people (in Philadelphia) take pride in being the opposite of the typical mindless water-and-sprout mutants filling seats in stadiums across the country. Philadelphians have long seen themselves as open, honest brokers – fans who will tell you exactly what they’re thinking instead of what you might want to hear.”

So in conclusion: Philadelphia fans can tell you what they’re thinking (even when you don’t want to hear it), but Philadelphia announcers cannot.

– Photo Los Angeles Times

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At its upfront presentation in New York last night, Tru announced a slate of new programming, and sports and competition series played a big part of it.

NFL Films is producing a new unscripted series for the network, “Semi-Pro” (working title). The series follows a team of semi-pro football players as they practice, play and hit the bars after the game.

“Semi-Pro” is the second series to come to TruTV from NFL Films. Last year the channel televised “NFL Full Contact,” which was a behind the scenes look at an NFL game.

Another sports-themed series coming to Tru this year is MotoClash (wt), which is from producers Tony Scott and Ridley Scott. The series chronicles World MotoClash, the longest motorcycle race in the world.

Other competition series include “Guinness World Records” (wt) which has a pair of brothers traveling the country trying to help people break Guinness world records.

Finally, TruTV has acquired off-network rights to the ABC series “Wipeout,” which will debut on Tru this Fall.

More information on these and the other pickups, after the jump.

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Breaking:

The changes are the first major moves since James Goldston took over as senior EP of “GMA” in February.

“In her new position, Juju will play a leading part in a number of the 13 primetime hours that Nightline will produce this summer,” wrote ABC News president Ben Sherwood in an email to staff. “She will also make major contributions to 20/20, World News and GMA – as she has throughout her 23 year career at ABC News.”

The news was first reported by the NY Post.

Elliott will join fellow ESPN alum Robin Roberts on the morning show, along with ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, who contributes regular pieces to the program. Both ESPN and ABC are owned by the Walt Disney Company.

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