00:00Jamelle Hill is exiting the 6 p.m. hour of SportsCenter, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
00:04The move comes in the wake of Hill's controversial tweets about President Donald Trump and the
00:08national anthem protests sweeping the NFL. Sources tell THR that Hill's last day on SC6 will be
00:14Friday, February 2nd, two days before the Super Bowl. Michael Smith will host a show on his own,
00:19as he did when Hill was suspended last October for her NFL tweets. Hill will remain at ESPN,
00:24where she is one year into a lucrative four-year deal. She'll write for the undefeated, the ESPN
00:29vertical dedicated to race, culture and sports. She'll also host issues-based town halls and
00:34she'll be free to do more field reporting and longer pieces. Sources close to the situation say
00:39it was Hill's decision to leave SportsCenter. She began hosting the show with Smith last
00:43February after the duo's podcast His and Hers had steadily grown in popularity. But it was never
00:48an easy fit for Hill, so just before the holidays, she approached ESPN executives about making a
00:53change. Sources tell THR that her exit means the podcast will be revived in the coming weeks.
00:58Hill's tweet last September calling Donald Trump a white supremacist caused an uproar on Twitter
01:03and led to a reboot from the White House. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she
01:08should be fired. The post also made her a hero for the anti-Trump left. Hill was ultimately
01:13suspended for a tweet about Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in which she encouraged her
01:17followers to boycott the team if they disagreed with Jones, who told his players they would be
01:22benched if they didn't stand for the national anthem. ESPN, of course, has a $15.2 billion
01:28deal with the league to broadcast Monday Night Football. To read more on Jamelle Hill's exit
01:32from ESPN SportsCenter, head to THR.com. For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Lyndsey Rodrigues.
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