History of ABC Sports

Sports programming on the American Broadcasting Company is provided on occasion, primarily on weekend afternoons; since 2006, the ABC Sports division has been defunct, with all sports telecasts on ABC being produced in association with sister cable network ESPN under the branding ESPN on ABC. While ABC has, in the past, aired notable sporting events such as the NFL's Monday Night Football, and various college football bowl games (including, most prominently for a period, the Bowl Championship Series), general industry trends and changes in rights have prompted reductions in sports broadcasts on broadcast television (the BCS's successor, the College Football Playoff and national championship, air exclusively on ESPN). ABC is the broadcast television rightsholder of the National Basketball Association (NBA), with its package (under the NBA on ESPN branding) traditionally beginning with its Christmas Day games, followed by a series of Sunday afternoon games through the remainder of the season, weekend playoff games, and all games of the NBA Finals. During college football season, ABC typically carries an afternoon doubleheader on Saturdays, along with the primetime Saturday Night Football. ABC also airs coverage of selected bowl games. The Saturday afternoon lineup outside of football season typically features airings of ESPN Films documentaries or other studio programs under the banner ESPN Sports Saturday, while Sunday afternoons usually feature either brokered programming, or encore and burn-off airings of ABC programs.

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ESPN/ESPN2/ABC Sports

Before her part on Cold Pizza, Andrews was seen in the ESPN series Playmakers (2003), in which she played the role of Samantha Lovett, a television sports news reporter. The role was highly controversial and The Association for Women in Sports Media formally filed a complaint for the portrayal of Lovett. Andrews disagreed with this complaint in an interview with The Plain Dealer in 2004. Andrews joined ESPN in October 2003 as the national correspondent for Cold Pizza (2003-2005), ESPN2's signature morning show as she made her debut on October 20, 2003. Andrews' primary role on the daily weekday program (7-9 a.m. ET) was to provide live reports from sports and non-sports events as well as to present unique lifestyle features. The show was originally hosted by Jay Crawford and Kit Hoover. Eventually, Andrews became co-host. From 2004-2006, she co-hosted the Triple Crown morning shows on ESPN2 such as Breakfast at Churchill Downs (2004-2006) and Breakfast at Pimlico (2004-2006), a program of the morning the Kentucky Oaks, Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes (2004-2006). She also contributed to ESPN's long extensive coverage of the Triple Crown afternoon shows (2004-2006) including the Belmont Stakes. She also covered other big horse racing events. She served as a reporter for the Breeders Cup Simulcast Show in 2004 and 2005. After 17 months on Cold Pizza the show began cutting both the airtime of Andrews and Kit Hoover. In an attempt to become more sports-oriented rather than a blend of sports, pop culture, and entertainment, the show dropped Andrews and Hoover altogether in March 2005. They were replaced by Dana Jacobson. While Hoover left the network in late 2006, Andrews had already agreed several months prior to be transferred to Los Angeles to co-host ESPN2's new evening entertainment show, ESPN Hollywood. She also co-hosted The ESPY Red Carpet Show (2005-2006) with Stuart Scott in July 2005. She hosted it in July 2006 with Dana Jacobson.* Andrews reported the sidelines for college football on ESPN and ABC Beginning on August 15, 2005, Mario Lopez and Andrews began hosting ESPN Hollywood (2005-2006). ESPN Hollywood was a weeknight entertainment show à la Entertainment Tonight which focused more on Hollywood's relationship to the sports world. Andrews also was the producer for ESPN Hollywood.* The show would end up cancelled in January 2006 after a management change at ESPN in which several ESPN shows were cancelled (Cheap Seats, Classic Now, etc.) and also due to poor initial ratings. After ESPN Hollywood was cancelled, Andrews briefly hosted a segment of the latest news of the convergence between the sports and entertainment worlds called Sports and Hollywood (2006), a segment on Cold Pizza which began in April 2006. The tightened focus on sports news resulted in an end to that segment in November 2006; however, actors and other performers still stopped by the Cold Pizza studios from time to time to pitch their projects and share their love of sports. Also after ESPN Hollywood, Andrews often reported the sidelines for College Basketball for ABC Sports and ESPN and also covered Golf for ESPN. She was a contributor to ABC Sports's coverage of the 2006 Belmont Stakes. She also contributed to ESPN's coverage of the 2006 Breeders Cup.