ESPN SportsCenter anchor Jemele Hill is leaving the 6:00 p.m. SC6 edition of SportsCenter to join the staff of The Undefeated, the ESPN microsite that fuses sports, race and culture, as well as other additional assignments. Multiple sources confirmed that Hill asked management for the switch. She is expected to depart SC6 in February.
Last February, ESPN relaunched SportsCenter as SC6 with Jemele Hill and Michael Smith as its new anchors. In September, Hill notably became a subject of national conversation following a string of tweets in response to comments about President Donald Trump, including one where she called the President "a white supremacist." A White House spokeswoman called for Hill to be fired and Trump also responded to Hill on Twitter. ESPN released a statement saying Hill's comments "do not represent the position of ESPN," and later, the network suspended Hill for two weeks for violating its social media policy.
Earlier this month, Hill was a guest on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast, where she openly discussed her tweets about Trump and the White House reaction to those tweets; whether she fits into the SportsCenter paradigm; how much management discusses ratings with her; what she hopes 2018 will bring, and much more.
