Outside the Lines to return to ESPN after Super Bowl

Outside the Lines, recent winner of the prestigious duPont Award for its coverage of youth football issues, will return to ESPN starting Monday, February 10th. OTL will air in its previous weekday (3 p.m. ET) and Sunday (9 a.m.) slots. The show was moved to ESPN2 in August to accommodate expanded NFL programming and will return to that schedule next August.

“ESPN’s commitment to journalism is as strong as ever,” said ESPN President John Skipper. “With this schedule change, we will increase the overall exposure of this award-winning franchise and continue to support OTL’s multiplatform efforts.”

Skipper also recognized OTL’s DuPont Award.

“Congratulations to the entire OTL team for being honored with the duPont Award,” he said. “Sports stories are rarely selected for the duPont and this recognition further illustrates the incredible work being done throughout our news gathering unit.”

Afternoon schedule for ESPN and ESPN2 (Starts Feb. 10, all times P.M. and ET)

ESPN

3:00-3:30 Outside the Lines
3:30-4:00 NFL Insiders
4:00-5:00 NFL Live
5:00-5:30 Around The Horn
5:30-6:00 Pardon The Interruption

ESPN2

3:00-4:00 SportsNation
4:00-4:30 Highly Questionable
4:30-5:00 Highly Questionable (re-air)
5:00-5:30 NFL Insiders (re-air)
5:30-6:00 ESPN FC

Here was anchor Bob Ley’s reaction to the news from a Saturday tweet (as well as Sports Illustrated’s take (first item after roundtable):

And some reaction to the news from peers and current and former colleagues alike: