Linda Cohn is retiring from a week from Tuesday, ending a 34-year run that began in 1992 and made her the host of more editions of SportsCenter than anyone else. announced the move on Monday, and Cohn will make one last guest appearance on Friday during the 6, 10 and 11 PM ET editions of SportsCenter.
That final stretch is drawing attention because Cohn’s name has been tied to SportsCenter for decades, through the show’s 1990s heyday and through a host rotation that helped define ’s on-air identity. Her time at the network also included work on ’s NHL and WNBA coverage, along with a stint as a WNBA play-by-play voice, giving her a reach that went well beyond the studio desk.
Ben Koo of Awful Announcing first reported the news, and and Cohn then confirmed it through the network. Cohn said she is grateful for every moment at, and that she feels inspired and energized by the opportunities that lie ahead, adding that her story is still being written. For a viewer who has watched SportsCenter for years, that is the point: this is not a quiet fade from a long career, but the end of a run that helped carry the show through one of its most recognizable eras.
There was a harder edge behind the retirement, though. shut down the Los Angeles-based SportsCenter she regularly hosted about a year ago, and the network had been offering Los Angeles-based employees the choice of relocating back to Bristol, Conn., or taking a severance package. and Cohn also could not agree on a new role before her contract expired, despite a possible continuing presence being on the table. Stan Verrett left shortly after that Los Angeles operation ended, making Cohn’s departure feel less like an isolated personnel change than the last step in a larger unwind.
On Friday, Cohn will be back on SportsCenter one last time as a guest, and then next Tuesday her 34 years at will be over. What remains open is not whether her run mattered — it plainly did — but what shape the next chapter takes after one of the network’s most durable anchors finally leaves the desk.
