Up Close is a
sports interview show that aired on
ESPN for some 20 years.
History
Early years
The program debuted in
1981 on
USA Network and was created by the advertising agency
Foote, Cone and Belding to advertise one of its clients,
Mazda cars.
Mazda SportsLook moved to ESPN in
1982 and was subsequently rechristened
Up Close. This was after it was called
SportsLook.
Time slots
Once it arrived at ESPN,
SportsLook was slotted before
SportsCenter. The show aired at 6 p.m.
Eastern time, followed by
SportsCenter at 6:30. The show remained in that slot until September
1999, when
SportsCenter was expanded to an hour and
Up Close, as it was then renamed, moved to 5:30 p.m.
