Erin Andrews Is Leaving ESPN

by Glenn Davis | 6:55 pm, June 29th, 2012

Well, this is a pretty large bit of news to break at 6:30 p.m. on a Friday – Erin Andrews, longtime sideline staple at ESPN, is leaving the company, according to ESPN itself. Exactly where she’s going hasn’t been announced (based on this report from SI’s Richard Deitsch, she’s probably moving to Fox Sports), but she’s definitely going. The ESPN line on this development, via a tweet from rep Josh Krulewitz:

Erin Andrews leaving ESPN. She did great work for us & we made an aggressive offer to keep her. We wish her the best on her next chapter

— Josh Krulewitz (@jksports) June 29, 2012

Of course, this was a possibility since Andrews’ contract was running out, and ESPN just lost another big name with Michelle Beadle’s departure. Still, we were surprised to hear this, and we weren’t alone. Andrews has been with ESPN for a long time, becoming one of the network’s most prominent personalities while she was at it. While her star might have been eclipsed by Beadle’s both inside and outside of Bristol, she’s still a big name (enough for the likes of TMZ to fawn over her), and a big pickup for whoever gets her – again, presumably Fox.

It was, of course, an up-and-down ride for Andrews at ESPN – there was the creepy hotel peephole video incident, this also-extremely-creepy story, and on a more job-related basis, the contributor gig with Good Morning America that didn’t really go anywhere, as well as the supposedly-frosty rivalry with Beadle.

But the good outweighed the bad, by a pretty wide margin. Again, she was one of the biggest stars ESPN had. They’ll miss her, she will be rewarded handsomely by her next employer (too handsomely, apparently, for ESPN to match, so very handsomely, is what we’re saying), and even if she winds up in a near-identical capacity at her new employer, it’s going to be a bit strange seeing her working elsewhere.