ESPN 2

ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN. The channel debuted on October 1, 1993.

Originally nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross, snowboarding, and BMX racing. This mandate was phased out by the late 1990s, as the channel increasingly served as a second outlet for ESPN's mainstream sports coverage. ESPN2 is carried in 89 million homes in the United States, eleven million fewer than ESPN.

"The Deuce" launched on October 1, 1993 with the first episode of SportsNight, a sports news program originally hosted by Keith Olbermann and Suzy Kolber, where Keith opened the show by jokingly welcoming viewers to "the end of [his] career." SportsNight would also serve as the starting point for many other ESPN personalities, among them Stuart Scott, Suzy Kolber and Kenny Mayne.

ESPN2's initial programming was aimed towards younger viewers, and as such primarily focused on alternative events, including extreme sports, alongside being an additional outlet for sports ESPN also covered at the time. ESPN2 telecasts were more informal than their counterparts; commentators did not wear ties, and individual sports were promoted with additional taglines (such as "Hell on Wheels" for NASCAR, and "Fire on Ice" for NHL hockey). ESPN2 also had an "edgier" look on-air, its original logo featured a graffiti styled numeral "2" and did not resemble ESPN's logo at all, and on-screen graphics would also often use an edgier font with inconsistent letter casing. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia