Former ESPN SportsCenter anchors Stan Verrett and Neil Everett recently announced that they will be launching a new show, beginning Sept. 9, airing live on Twitch before being distributed across YouTube and podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify.
While Verrett and Everett had chemistry while narrating ESPN’s flagship news-and-highlights program—together from 2009-23, with Verrett continuing until this past summer—it is a peculiar decision to focus on Twitch, given their own content history at ESPN as well as what traditionally has succeeded on the Amazon-owned streaming platform.
The programs that do best on Twitch are “in-real-life” streaming, meaning when creators take their viewers on a voyage and showcase their adventures to the world. Twitch has also been a platform where gamers can garner an audience. However, it is not a platform known for standard sports-talk content.
Studbudz, for example, which launched on Twitch in June, features WNBA duo Courtney Willliams and Natisha Hiedeman giving the audience a glimpse into their lives. It has more than 78,000 followers.
A spokesperson for Twitch confirmed to Front Office Sports that the former SportsCenter anchors are not being paid for their show to air first on its platform, beyond the money that Twitch pays creators for driving engagement.
Verrett’s agent, Sandy Montag, told FOS, “I wouldn’t be surprised if other distribution partners step up to the plate in the future.”
One key adjustment Verrett and Everett will need to make: they’ll be commenting more casually on events, compared to SportsCenter where they were traditional anchors. They will also have to adapt to not having the extensive highlight rights and instead must rely on “fair use” rights.
