ESPN2 Adds Hollywood to Its Pizza

Cold Pizza, ESPN2’s morning show that mixes sports with pop culture, will go a little more Hollywood beginning Monday.

The show will add “Hollywood Huddle,” led by co-host Kit Hoover, to its lineup. The first installment will originate from Tinseltown the morning after the 62nd Annual Golden Globes Awards.

In addition to summing things up from the Globes -- including the performance of Clint Eastwood’s boxing film, Million Dollar Baby, which has five nominations -- the segment will examine the rush of upcoming films with sports themes.

Each day, Hollywood Huddle will present a daily entertainment report highlighted by sports tie-ins but covering the hot entertainment news of the day.

“Anyone who has watched Cold Pizza knows that athletes love to talk about entertainment and entertainers love to talk about sports,” executive producer Brian Donlon said in a prepared statement.

“Our goal is to make Hollywood Huddle the place where athletes and entertainers can come and talk about their passions, from film to football and from sitcoms to soccer and everything else in between,” he added.

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.