2016By Ian Casselberry on

Those who enjoy spending their SportsCenter mornings with Kevin Negandhi should enjoy the following news. The anchor and ESPN announced an agreement on a new multi-year contract that should keep him comfortably part of the SportsCenter: AM program that begins each weekday at 7 a.m. ET.

The latest

In addition to his SportsCenter anchoring duties, Negandhi, 41, fills several roles at ESPN, hosting a variety of shows including NFL Live, Baseball Tonight, College Football Live, NBA Tonight and Outside the Lines. He has also hosted the network’s coverage of the women’s NCAA basketball Final Four and WNBA Draft. This year, Negandhi was also the host of ESPN’s Scripps National Spelling Bee broadcasts.

However, co-anchoring SportsCenter: AM is Negandhi’s most prominent gig. ESPN began the show in February, which was a bit of an experiment in having a live SportsCenter broadcast that early, but also helming a show that has a bit of a different feel from the other SportsCenters, incorporating more of a conversational, morning show tone, rather than just running through highlights and feature packages. Obviously, the contract extension says that the network likes what Negandhi is doing in that role.

I like it because it’s a challenge. I love the crew that I work with,” Negandhi told Sporting News‘ Michael McCarthy in early September. “The crew we work with behind the scenes. … You’ve got to understand, the anchors are up at 3 a.m. The crew is up before us. This is a completely new venture. It’s not like network morning TV. Or even local morning TV, where they’ve done it before. So for me the challenge is starting something completely different.”

Negandhi has been with ESPN since 2006 and will make it past the 10-year mark at the network with this new deal.

“I’m really excited about the future, and that future involves ESPN,” Negandhi said in an official statement. “To be able to reach my 10th year at ESPN this year and now go above and beyond that means a lot. We have so much fun on the morning show, I love working with the crew, and we appreciate the great support we get from the audience.”

It shouldn’t be overlooked that Negandhi is the first Indian-American anchor on a national sports network. In an industry where many of the faces can tend to look the same, and those who might stand out aren’t necessarily rewarded, his tenure might be even more impressive and certainly speaks to the level of work he provides on a regular basis.

A Pennsylvania native, Negandhi is obviously still popular at home where his hometown area roots for a guy who made good, as the following tweet displays.

https://twitter.com/cvilleitalbake/status/781468793633505280

Negandhi will probably take the multi-year contract at ESPN, but getting a shout-out on a local bakery sign is pretty cool, too. Hopefully, they sent a box of goodies up to Bristol.

[ESPN Front Row]

About Ian Casselberry

Ian is a writer, editor, and podcaster. You can find his work at Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He's written for Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation.

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