00:00Michael Smith will follow Jamel Hill by also leaving ESPN's 6 p.m.
00:04SportsCenter ESPN confirmed on Friday. He anchors his final program, March 9.
00:09Hill exited the show in February after a fairly tumultuous tenure that included
00:13controversial tweets about President Donald Trump and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry
00:17Jones. For his part, Smith has not attracted the same level of controversy as Hill
00:21and has anchored SC6 on his own since his co-host exit. An ESPN announcement
00:26confirming Smith's exit did not offer any clarity on permanent anchors going forward,
00:30but Matt Barry, Michael Eaves, Linda Cohn and John Butcher-Gross are among those
00:34scheduled to rotate in. In a statement, Norby Williamson, ESPN's executive VP
00:39and executive editor of Studio Production said,
00:41"...Michael is a talented commentator and we greatly appreciate and value his
00:45contributions and creativity. We are in the process of discussing with him
00:49potential next ESPN assignments." Hill, who is now writing for the ESPN-owned
00:53website TheUndefeated, has said that it was her decision to leave SportsCenter,
00:57but sources close to the show say Smith's exit was not voluntary. And his deal
01:02stipulates that he remain as a 6 p.m. anchor on ESPN for three years. He is a little
01:06more than a year into that deal, which pays him $10 million over four years.
01:10Smith had been somewhat open about his frustrations in the lead-up to his exit.
01:14"...there was a time we weren't even talking to each other on the program anymore,"
01:18he told James Andrew Miller during a recent edition of Miller's Origins podcast.
01:22I'm like, so wait a second. You all acknowledge that one of the strengths that we have going
01:27for us as a show is Michael and Jamel's chemistry, but Michael and Jamel don't
01:31fucking talk to each other. How does that make sense?
01:34Hill & Smith SportsCenter premiered in February 2017. It was an extension of
01:38Smith & Hill's ESPN2 program, His & Hers, featuring a more conversational style
01:43and liberal doses of pop culture. According to multiple high-level ESPN sources,
01:48when Hill left, Williamson joked in front of a room full of people, one down, one to go.
01:53To read more on this story, head to THR.com. For The Hollywood Reporter News,
01:57I'm Lyndsey Rodrigues.
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