SAN FRANCISCO, CA – FEBRUARY 05: A view of the logo during ESPN The Party on February 5, 2016 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Mike Windle/Getty Images for ESPN)
ESPN is canceling its long-running popular show, Outside the Lines, according to Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand.
Ourand is reporting that the network informed staffers of plans to stop producing a linear television show specifically for OTL this week.
ESPN typically stops the show in August and resumes the week after the Super Bowl, but that won’t be the case this time around. While Outside the Lines is set for cancellation, the move will not affect anyone’s employment status as some staff will join other studio shows while the OTL brand will continue to be around and will be incorporated into other shows.
OTL on SC will be part of SportsCenter shows on a daily basis. It’s already a segment on the SportsCenter episode which airs at noon on weekdays.
.@OTLonESPN debuted at its new time today.
Sat. morning: 9:00 a.m. ET
You now know what key ESPN execs think of OTL.
Because here’s the truth, past all the spin, past all the fancy words about viewer habits changing & evolution & revamping.
They put it on at 9AM ET on a Sat.
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) January 18, 2020
ESPN is also planning to have the brand feature content on its digital avenues such as the network’s YouTube channel.
The cancelation is understood to be a result of low viewership. Outside the Lines averaged 303,000 viewers in the Saturday morning timeslot last year. SportsCenter: AM has an average of 507,000 viewers in the 9 AM slot.
Outside the Lines was launched in 1990. It began running as a daily show from 2003 to 2019, as well as a Sunday show from 2000 to 2017. The Saturday morning edition began airing in 2020.
