ESPNU launches late night show powered by social

By Natan Edelsburg 

They say each generation is more digitally savvy than the next. As younger generations begin to produce TV for major networks, the social platforms they grew up with are beginning to become the focus of how they create content. ESPN has just launched its first major late night show on ESPNU called UNITE.

UNITE doesn’t even seem to have a website presence, instead powerful Twitter and Facebook accounts complement it’s midnight airings that began on ESPNU on August 27th. Here’s how the network defines the show, filmed at ESPN HQ:

Live from the ESPN studios in Bristol, Conn., the show’s three hosts will push the envelope Monday-Friday with an often irreverent look at social media and video-driven sports of the day. Expect nightly guests, but not always on the couch. The show will use the latest technologies to connect with the world outside the studio walls, incorporating many guests and sports fans via Skype with a 103″ monitor as a set centerpiece.

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Will this Tosh.0 style show for young sports fanatics make a splash? We spoke with Emmy Award-winning producer Yaron Deskalo about why this show is unique and is a big deal for ESPN.

Lost Remote: What’s the show about?

Yaron Deskalo: UNITE is about sports for the college-aged sports fan. That’s as specific as it is broad. We are taking a late night approach to sports news of the day. We have an in-house DJ, a comedian, a football analyst and a social media host. UNITE is talking about sports the way you might with your friends on the couch, if you had a friend who was an NFL player and one that was a standup comic. We have the ability to have feet on the ground all over the sports world with nightly Skype interviews and we are looking to social media on a minute to minute basis to find the storylines we debate.

LR: How does it use social media uniquely?

Deskalo: Our goal isn’t to push content into the social media world, it is to take content from the social world and give it a television platform. Then we are taking that content and displaying it in a new way. We have a spinning cube that runs throughout the show on our 103″ monitor. We can update the graphic even while it is in use, making social content fluid and current during the show.

LR: How is this a big move for ESPN?

Deskalo: We are approaching sports entertainment with a new lens and with a specific audience in mind. It’s our first time in the late night entertainment circuit and it’s a big move for ESPNU as a nightly live show for a younger audience.

LR: What platforms will you be using?

Deskalo: If its a platform where our viewers are talking we want to be listening – twitter, Facebook, Skype and YouTube have taken centerstage every night this week. For the future we are looking into having a live studio audience using Google Hangouts.

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