Over the years, ESPN’s Kenny Mayne has been seen more on platforms other than SportsCenter such as starring in his own web series (Mayne Street), hosting another (Kenny Mayne’s Wider World of Sports), contributing off-beat stories to Sunday NFL Countdown, participtating on Dancing With the Stars, and even calling a horse race at Santa Anita. Most recently, he’s been a guest anchor on the West Coast editions of SportsCenter, but starting next week, Mayne returns as a regular SportsCenter anchor as he’ll helm the 11 p.m. ET edition.
ESPN says Mayne will co-anchor the 11 p.m. SportsCenter starting the week of June 5. He’ll be joined by John Anderson next Monday and Tuesday then by Kevin Connors on Wednesday and Thursdsay.
Mayne has a long history with the Worldwide Leader, first joining ESPN2 in 1994 as a host of SportsSMASH, then hosting the old motorsports-centric RPM 2Night before joining Dan Patrick on the Mothership on the 11 p.m. SportsCenter in 1997. He eventually would co-anchor late night SportsCenters before moving away from the anchor desk.
But now he’ll be coming back to a different SportsCenter which focuses less on highlights and more on personalities and interviews. And that might work out for Mayne as he cau depend on his off-beat humor to drive the show.
Of course, Mayne won’t have to worry about recording the endings of SportsCenter for the morning re-airs as was depicted in this episode of Mayne Street with Kenny, now-midnight ET host Scott van Pelt and Alison Becker as the SportsCenter producer:
But maybe he’ll have to record international editions of SportsCenter ….
Back in 2015, Mayne signed a contract with ESPN that led to his guest-anchoring roles on the West Coast editions of SportsCenter, but now he’ll be back on SportsCenter in beautiful downtown Bristol, CT beginning next week.
