Notable segments
The A Block
At the start of each show questions posed to the viewers on the SportsNation website are shown. The hosts discuss each topic briefly, and then reveal what the Nation’s response was.
Did You Hear That?
A countdown of the best sound bites of the day referred to as the top 5 things the viewers "have to hear."
Colin's Pictures
Colin draws pictures with a marker on white poster-sized paper to illustrate a concept to encapsulate his opinion about the stories of the day. After he draws the pictures, Michelle critiques his drawings and the audience cheers if they like his drawing and jeers or remains silent if their reaction is negative.
Three Cheers/Jeers/Tears
Interspersed throughout each show are the following segments showcasing good and bad plays of the day:
Three Cheers – The three happiest or most exciting sports moments, such as a difficult touchdown, a slam dunk or another exceptional play.
Three Jeers – Three worst moments of the day, such as a team losing a game in a blow out, dropping a wide open pass in football or an easy pop up, shooting an air ball, or simply performing poorly.
Three Tears – The three saddest or most embarrassing moments, such as a basketball player being fouled in an especially physical manner, a player missing a crucial scoring opportunity, or a fight between hockey players.
Fake Calls From Real Fans
Viewers call in to ask a question of the hosts, while pretending to be a famous sports figure.
Date, Marry, Dump
Presented with the helmets of four NFL teams with a common bond, like having the same win-lose record, or being in the same division, Colin must choose one to: “date”, one to “marry”, and one to “dump”.
Game Time
Every episode one of several games is played, all revolving around predicting how the Nation responded to poll questions. The winner (if there is one) gets to pick a video of his or her choice to be replayed. It is announced with a little voice saying, "What time is it?," with crowd saying "Game Time!" followed by a grunt.
B.S. Meter - A clip of a sports figure making a statement that could be seen as B.S. (Referred to as "Bologna Statements") is shown, with Colin deciding how “B.S.” the statement is by placing the meter on either Not BS, A Little BS, BS, or Total BS, followed by the Nation’s consensus. If the statement is B.S. or Total B.S., the head of the person is put on the Liar Board.
Number Crunch – A question asking what percentage of the Nation answered a question a certain way is shown, along with a three digit number representing two possible percentages; for example, “451” would represent both 45% and 51%. The hosts each pick the percentage they believe to be correct.
Walk the Plank – One of the hosts is asked four or five questions by the other host that is dressed in pirate garb and making horrible jokes (which the crew still laughs at)most often Colin, as they must predict what percent of the Nation answered a certain way. For every percentage they are off, an animated version of the host must take a step towards the end of a pirate ship's plank, with more than 40 steps forcing them to jump off.
Multi Poll Choice – Michelle is given four questions, each with four possible percentages as correct answers, and must predict how the Nation responded. For this segment, Colin wears a red coat similar to that of Ron Burgundy, while also mimicking his mannerisms which include drinking scotch and making horrible jokes (which the crew still laughs at).
Pop Culture/Movie Game – The hosts are asked a question with two possible answers, one a sports figure and one a pop culture icon known outside the sports world. The hosts each attempts to match the more popular answer of the Nation. The movie game follows the same format, just with movies instead of the pop culture icon.
Who Wants to Win a Pizza? - A parody of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? even though each time Michelle Beadle reports that any similarities with any show is coincidental. Colin is asked a question with four possible answers and pick the option he believes the Nation chose. His objective is to correctly answer all four questions, winning pizza for the show's whole crew.
Were They Suspended? - A game made shortly after several violent incidents in the NFL that involves one host wearing suspenders and using scraggly voice. The other answers basically what the title implies, were they suspended? The game involves clips of varies NFL incidents from various seasons. It is unknown if the game would be played again after it's December 1st, 2010 debut.
Lock Em' Up
During the NFL season, Colin reveals his three NFL “locks” for the week. First is the Little Lock, going to the team he is fairly certain will win their game. Second is the Solid Lock, going to the team he is more certain will win. The final lock, the Master Lock, goes to the team Colin is the most sure will win. A variation of this segment is Colin's Lock of Love, staged like a reality dating show.
Winners and Losers
The hosts discuss smaller topics that have not already been discussed in that episode, declaring each subject a "winner" or a "loser."
Pulse of the Nation
A list of the top 5 buzzworthy stories of the day. Now the Pop Culture game is usually played during this time.
Weird Web Stories
Each day three videos from the internet are shown, they are unusual and often not sports related. Often, the last video will be paused in the middle to pose a multiple-choice question to the hosts about what they think will happen next. Although rare, some videos are fake.
Power Rankings
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| NFL Power Rankings |
The show will list who they believe are the top five in one of several categories. After revealing the list, they then show Tweets by fans listing who they believe the show wrongfully excluded. Common categories include:
NFL’s Most Valuable Player candidates
Best teams in the NFL, the NBA, the MLB, or in NCAA football and basketball
NCAA players most likely to receive the Heisman Trophy
Best NBA players
Best NFL Draft prospects
Afterwards the hosts talk with the show's senior web wall producer, Gabe.
[edit]What We Learned
A recap of the results from the polls at the beginning of the show and the Weird Web Stories.
Special episodes
October 5, 2009: To celebrate Brett Favre's first NFL game against his former team, the Green Bay Packers, the hosts declared it "Brett Favre Day" and attempted to break the world record for most mentions of Brett Favre in an hour. They ended the show with 203 mentions, and the record.
October 30, 2009: The last episode before Halloween. This set was dressed up as Christmas for Halloween.
November 30, 2009: Both hosts dressed up as fans of the New England Patriots and New Orleans Saints, and held a poll throughout the show to determine who would be put into a dunk tank outside at the end of the show. Colin lost and was dunked as a result.
January 2010: While repeat broadcasts of the 2010 Australian Open were airing on ESPN2, the show was moved to ESPNU, ESPN's college sports channel. To celebrate, the hosts renamed the show "SportsNation University" and decorated the set to resemble a dorm room. The set even included a pizza that was opened early in the first week and left open in the studio to rot for 10 days.
April 11, 2010: Coinciding with the final regular season game for the Cleveland Cavaliers, a LeBron James special took place culminating with Miss Cleo predicting that James would be playing for the Washington Wizards in the 2010–11 season. This was also known as the Lebron-a-thon
April 22, 2010: Avatar themed special/Earth Day special on the day Avatar was released to DVD and Blu-ray.
June 10, 2010: 2010 FIFA World Cup special featuring guest Pele.
August 3, 2010: Brett Favre's retirement and Tom Brady's birthday party.
August 10, 2010: Madden NFL 11 Special
September 20-23, 2010: Big Ten road trip, including shows at Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and Penn State respectively.
October 29, 2010: For the final show before Halloween, the set was dressed up to look like Pardon the Interruption's set, complete with Tony Kornheiser yelling at Beadle and Cowherd, costumed as Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady respectively, to "stop stealing [their] stuff!"
December 23, 2010: 101 Holiday Jeers
January 31-February 4, 2011: On-location programming from Sundance Square in Fort Worth, Texas, about 20 miles west of Arlington, site of Super Bowl XLV
February 25, 2011: In contrast to the upcoming Academy Awards, the hosts handed out the "FAILy Awards," recognizing people in sports video clips who failed.
March 8, 2011: To celebrate March Madness, the hosts presented various college basketball-themed countdowns, such as the all-time best buzzer-beaters.
March 30, 2011: Top four special.
April 27, 2011: At the end of the show, the hosts announced the cover athlete for the Madden NFL 12 video game. The final two in consideration for the cover, Michael Vick and Peyton Hillis, were in studio for the whole show.
Video tournaments
During certain episodes, the hosts hold a tournament between 16 sports-related videos. Each match is voted on by the show's viewers. Since the beginning of the show, three such tournaments have been held:
On December 23, 2009, the All-Valley Video Tournament was contested between the SportsNation crew's 16 favorite web videos of the year. Pool Domination won the event.
On February 11, 2010, the Posterized competition pitted 16 "posterization" slam dunks against each other to determine the "second-greatest" posterization in basketball history (the greatest being one performed by Vince Carter during the 2000 Summer Olympics). Scottie Pippen won with a dunk on Patrick Ewing on May 20, 1994
On March 15, 2010, the 16 best "buzzer-beaters" in NCAA men's basketball tournament history competed against each other; the winner was by NC State's Lorenzo Charles, whose shot defeated the University of Houston in the 1983 championship.
Winners Bracket
In April 2010, the SportsNation crew created an ABC spinoff show called Winners Bracket, broadcast on Saturday and hosted by Michelle Beadle and Marcellus Wiley. The main focus of the show is a tournament pitting 16 highlights of the week against each other via fan vote. In addition to the tournament, the show also features a countdown of 20 "lowlights" of the week as well as web videos, many of which have been featured on SportsNation in the past.
College football edition
In September 2010, SportsNation started airing on Saturdays at 10 AM following College GameDay, with Michelle Beadle and Jon Ritchie as hosts.
Audience
The average audience of SportsNation is very young (13-25 years) and mostly male compared to other ESPN programming. ESPN noted that the show's target audience is college students, men in their 20's, and teenage boys, demographics ESPN has been struggling to capture in years past.
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