Peter Schrager, SportsCenter in the middle of ESPN's weekday plan: Sources

Peter Schrager joined ESPN from NFL Network a year ago. Mike Carlson / Getty Images Share articleAfter nearly a quarter century, “Around The Horn” said goodbye a year ago. In its wake, ESPN set out to replace the 5 p.m. talk/game show that led into the iconic “Pardon The Interruption.” ESPN executives also started thinking about how to create a new hour-long program at 2 p.m. that would follow “The Pat McAfee Show,” which airs on ESPN from noon to 2 p.m. ET. Now, ESPN has clear leading candidates for what it will do at the beginning of football season in the fall. According to sources briefed on ESPN’s plans, a show centered on Peter Schrager is the likely winner for the 2 p.m. hour, while SportsCenter has the inside track to continue in ATH’s former 5 p.m. slot, buoyed by continuous strong ratings in the year since it launched there. No decisions are yet final. ESPN declined comment. ESPN executives had flirted with moving Scott Van Pelt, the captain of his own late-night “SportsCenter,” to begin a daily show at 5 p.m., but ultimately all involved decided it was better to keep Van Pelt in his same role, along with his “Monday Night Football” pregame hosting. At one point, post-ATH, ESPN also considered expanding PTI to an hour, though the idea never came to fruition. Schrager, 44, has been on the rise since he joined ESPN a little more than a year ago, appearing on several studio shows, including “Get Up,” “NFL Live” and McAfee’s program. He has also guest-hosted “Get Up” in place of Mike Greenberg, which gave ESPN executives even more confidence that he could handle his own hour. Since nothing is official, Schrager’s cohorts are still to be determined. Currently, at 2 p.m., ESPN has an hour-long SportsCenter. The 5 p.m. edition of SportsCenter is putting up bigger numbers than ATH did. SportsCenter averaged 446,000 viewers in April, which was 23 percent better than ATH for the same month last year. While ESPN has not made any final decisions, part of the network’s calculation to stay with SportsCenter is the future of Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. ESPN would like for Kornheiser, 77, and Wilbon, 67, to host PTI as long as they want. When they sign off for the final time, the plan may be to retool the complete hour then. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms