If you haven't been watching ESPN LA, you've missed some very interesting cameos during the 1am version of Sports Center. While Snoop Dogg was highly entertaining, nothing says knowing your demographic like having Justin Timberlake grace the airwaves for a night. The pop singer even tried his hand at answering a few questions from anchors, Stan Verrett and Neil Everett. Here's the clip....

Not a bad Top Ten, if you ask me. I could have done without the Lakers' homerism, mainly because you absolutely have to pick Lebron or Dwight Howard if you're starting an NBA team, but the rest of the answers were pretty good. Again, I'm not exactly sure he's in the demographic of folks that watch Sports Center, but he knows his Sports.

Oh, and lose the Michael Douglas glasses from "Falling Down"....they're creeping me out.

Nothing is really going to change with the way Sports Center is presented, but ESPN LA will officially hop on-air tonight at 1am EST (10pm PT). The complex itself is what's really impressive. The over 12,000 square foot studio will be home to 80 employees, and according to the LA Times, it contains "three production control rooms, two master control rooms, a newsroom-screening area, eight editing suites, a music room, a radio control room and studio, a voice-over room and two studios."

The other extremely impressive thing about the new LA digs, is that it is the only studio in the world that can broadcast in 1080P high definition production. It's no small undertaking and that certainly has the powers that be a little nervous....

"I'm very excited, very nervous," Cordray [ESPN LA's VP and GM] said Sunday. "Somebody asked me early last week if I was nervous and I said no. But now I'm getting first-day butterflies. The energy level is rising."

Cordray said that like any Hollywood production, the last few days have been spent rehearsing. She was unwilling to talk about how different the future of "SportsCenter" and ESPN might look with the new Los Angeles facility.

"Really all I can think of is getting this first 'SportsCenter' launched," she said. "What will things look like in the future? We'll think about that after we get through" the opening.

Everyone on the Left Coast thinks ESPN has a pretty prominent East Coast Bias, and while the network has always denied such a thing, this new building will certainly give the network more access to USC....er, ummm....the West Coast. Stan Verrett and Neil Everett will be your hosts tonight, and you can expect multiple cameos from Stu Scott.

Oh and one more thing. The first featured interview for the LA studio will be Magic Johnson sitting down with Larry Bird to talk about the 30th anniversary of their NCAA title clash.

ESPN's studio in L.A. debuts (LA Times)

ESPN has been planning for a little over a year now, to move a team out to Los Angeles, and have them do the late night Sports Center from a fabulous new facility. Well, that facility is just about complete, and today ESPN announced who was leaving the beautiful state of Connecticut and heading to La La Land.

ESPN’s anchor team for the 1 a.m. ET (10 p.m. PT) edition of SportsCenter, which will originate live five days a week from the network’s new, state-of-the-art production facility in Los Angeles beginning in April, will feature longtime SportsCenter anchors Neil Everett and Stan Verrett. They will relocate to California from Connecticut to serve as co-hosts of the show. In addition, Stuart Scott, who has been one of ESPN’s most prominent studio anchors for 15 years with roles on SportsCenter, and the network’s NBA and NFL coverage, will also be hosting a select number of shows throughout the year from Los Angeles, including the premiere on Monday, April 6.

Steve Anderson, ESPN executive vice president, news, talent & content operations said, “One of ESPN's strengths is the breadth and depth of our lineup of commentators, and we're fortunate that Stan and Neil, longtime SportsCenter veterans, were interested in making the move to Los Angeles. Both are terrific writers with an energetic and entertaining approach. We’re very pleased to have them as our late SportsCenter team and to lead this new, important effort.”

ESPN’s new facility will feature three production control rooms, two master control rooms; eight craft edit suites, a music room, a voiceover room and two studios totaling more than 12,300 square feet. ESPN’s owned & operated L.A.-based radio station will be relocating to the new facility in an adjacent building. Additional ESPN content will originate from this facility over time. This facility is held by ESPN subsidiary Los Angeles Cable Sports Productions, LLC.

Great. Stuart Scott has even more access to crappy West Coast Rappers. I fully expected Snoop Dogg to be an anchor by mid-August.

Back at the beginning of September, it was Toronto Argos receiver Arland Bruce spending five minutes trying to dig a Spiderman mask out of his jock. Well today we've got an even better CFL TD celebration from our neighbors to the north. The Winnepeg Blue Bombers decide to break out into a game of Duck-Duck-Goose this past Friday! Via LBS and Meaningful Collateral....

The best thing that came out of this clip is that both the TSN announcer, and ESPN's Stan Verrett (when it was on Sports Center's Top 10), apparently have no idea what "Duck, Duck, Goose" is. Via Watchdog....

Stan Verrett, the official SportsCenter anchor of WatchDog Nation, admitted on the late show last night that he never had heard of the game "Duck, Duck, Goose" until Friday.

(Canadian Football Leaguers were playing it as part of an end zone celebration.)

Sure, that's shocking, but I admire Stan's honesty and was inspired to admit to my own tale of a childhood standard that I never had heard of until well into adulthood:

S'mores? Was unaware of their existence until Mrs. WatchDog introduced them to me in my mid-30s.

Very very interesting, Neil. Thanks for sharing! Not knowing what a smore is makes sense because that's specific to certain areas, but I don't know how you could go through life without playing "DDG". I'm trying to think of something that I wasn't aware of until later in life, but I can't come up with anything. If you have an interesting one feel free to share it in the comments.

Duck Duck Goose Touchdown Celebration (Larry Brown Sports)
Add two points for strange Canadian TD celebration (Meaningful Collateral)
Stan Verrett never had heard of 'Duck, Duck, Goose' (Watchdog)

This actually went down last week, but here are Sean Salisbury and John Clayton debating who's better for the Giants rookie TE Kevin Boss or Jeremy Shockey. Clayton sort of changes the question around and Salisbury goes off on him. Good times at the 1:10 mark....

See what happens when you just have people yelling and debating all day long? Sooner or later two of these talking heads are going to come to blows.

Salisbury rips Clayton on-air: “Tales from the Crypt” (TBL)

The entity that is ESPN continues to blow my mind every single day. Last night Donyell Marshall hilariously forgot to wear his jersey onto the court before the tip of last night's Cavs-Sonics game last night. Marshall was wearing a "wife beater" underneath his warmups and Stan Verrett referred to it as such.

All was well and good until the powers that be decided that Verrett needed to apologize for something. Take a look....

Are you kidding me? I know it's not one of the best nicknames for a product, but this just blows my mind. It would have been one thing if Verrett said, "And Donyell isn't prepared for the game, but he's prepared to beat his wife", but he didn't. He just referred to what the garment is called.

It wasn't even two weeks ago that we were searching for answers regarding expletives at a public roast and not getting a response until a week after the incident. Maybe this was a preemptive strike, but it just solidifies how out of touch ESPN's management is with reality these days. Just amazing.

(Thanks to reader AS for the vids)

Wow. That quote I linked earlier didn't really scratch the surface of the T.O. comments. As Rich Eisen used to say on SportsCenter.....It's Time To Play The Feud!

I didn't know the word "piss" got bleeped out on TV, but I guess you learn something new everyday. In all honesty (and someone commented on this earlier), T.O. has been quiet all year and ESPN did the perfect job baiting him out of hiding.

(P.S.- I don't think I'd really like a skunk pissing on me Keyshawn, but to each his own.)