ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN. The channel debuted on October 1, 1993.

Originally nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross, snowboarding, and BMX racing. This mandate was phased out by the late 1990s, as the channel increasingly served as a second outlet for ESPN's mainstream sports coverage. ESPN2 is carried in 89 million homes in the United States, eleven million fewer than ESPN.

"The Deuce" launched on October 1, 1993 with the first episode of SportsNight, a sports news program originally hosted by Keith Olbermann and Suzy Kolber, where Olbermann opened the show by jokingly welcoming viewers to "the end of [his] career." SportsNight would also serve as the starting point for many other ESPN personalities, among them Stuart Scott, Suzy Kolber and Kenny Mayne.

ESPN2 would also be used for experimental broadcasts and technology. On September 18, 1994, ESPN2 aired a simulcast of ESPN's coverage of CART's Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix, using only onboard camera feeds. In 1995, ESPN2 debuted a sports news ticker, dubbed the "BottomLine," a persistent ticker which stayed at the bottom of the screen at all times during most programming, unlike ESPN, who only shows their own at the :28 and :58 of each hour(accompanied by an audio cue) and during select programming. ESPN2's sports telecasts were also among the first to regularly use a scoring bug. In later years, ESPN2 would also participate in "Full Circle" telecasts, productions of a single game aired across multiple ESPN services to provide additional features and angles.

Danny Pudi (born March 10, 1979) is an American actor, best known for his role as Abed Nadir on the NBC comedy series Community.

Pudi, who is of Indian and Polish descent, was born and raised in Chicago and grew up speaking Polish. He attended Notre Dame College Prep in Niles, Illinois. He studied dance in Chicago and attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, graduating with a degree in Communication and Theatre in 2001.

At Marquette, Pudi won the Chris Farley Scholarship. Beyond paying for a year of school, the scholarship led to his performing at an improv comedy event featuring Jim Breuer and Dave Chappelle, increasing his interest in studying improv. Pudi performed in summer stock theatre in Wisconsin after Marquette, then studied at The Second City in Chicago. He became a recruiter for an executive search firm before moving to Los Angeles in 2005 to seek television and film roles. Pudi's home-based job permitted him to attend auditions, helping him to avoid "the struggling actor thing in terms of waiting tables, temping and so on." He performed in several television pilots before joining the cast of Community.