Mark Shapiro's Reign Of Destruction Officially Over

It's a sad anniversary tomorrow, totally; January 17 marks the one-year anniversary of the cancellation of "ESPN Hollywood." The show lasted almost six months, and hoo, what a six months they were!

We bring this up to, well, to dance a bit on the grave of former ESPN head dog Mark Shapiro. Last year, with much fanfare — and a famously delirious media conference call featuring Josh Elliot, Thea Andrews and Stephen A. Smith — Shapiro launched three shows: "ESPN Hollywood," "Quite Frankly With Stephen A. Smith" and "Classic Now." With last week's announcement that all original programming would be booted from ESPN Classic, all vestiges of the Shapiro regime are officially deleted from the Bristol hard drive. Which is a shame, because we really thought "Teammates" had long-term growth potential.

Shapiro, who now plays Bugs Bunny for Daniel Snyder at "Six Flags," was not well-liked by his co-workers, and it's hard to imagine anyone who doesn't enjoy life with John Skipper and Norby! considerably more. Amazing, though: He had such a touch for programming.

Yet "Cold Pizza," somehow, still soldiers on.

ESPN Hollywood Bites The Dust [Deadspin]