Chris Connelly Biography

Chris Connelly, born in 1956 or 57, is an American sports and entertainment reporter who currently works for ESPN as a contributor to its E:60 newsmagazine. He was also the interim editor-in-chief of Grantland.com, replacing the position vacated by Bill Simmons, before ESPN shuttered the site on October 30, 2015.

Connelly joined ESPN in 2001 to host the daily interview program Unscripted with Chris Connelly, designed to be a more contemporary version of the long-running Up Close interview show which previously occupied the 5PM ET timeslot. The show, which premiered on the same day as Pardon the Interruption, lasted only a few months before being replaced by an early SportsCenter and eventually Around the Horn.

Since the cancellation of "Unscripted," Connelly has reported and narrated the long-form human interest reports that air on SportsCenter on weekends. Most notably, he annually does a one week series called "My Wish" involving athletes fulfilling kids' Make a Wish Foundation wishes. Connelly also helped ABC and ESPN cover the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2006; he conducted interviews with finalists who had just been eliminated.

Before joining ESPN, Connelly worked for Rolling Stone Magazine, as a music critic. During the 1980s he also served as Special Music Correspondent for Good Morning America, which involved interviewing the music stars of the day. Next Connelly spent thirteen years at MTV (1988–2001). He hosted the pre-shows for the MTV Movie Awards and prior to that, The Big Picture, a weekly show with features and movie reviews. He was also an editor and reporter for Premiere magazine, eventually becoming Editor in Chief. After six months however, Connelly resigned in a dispute over journalistic integrity after the owner of the magazine reportedly asked that he quash a story that unfavorably portrayed a business associate.

From 2000 to 2007 he was part of the ensemble of hosts for the Academy Awards preshow. All of these assignments were for ABC. On May 27, 2015, Connelly joined Grantland as interim editor-in-chief.