HD Highlights: ESPN debuts popular shows in HD

It’s about time, we say: ESPN finally debuted popular shows Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption in HD formats today. While it’s been way too long for these shows to make the jump, they look pretty good, according to many reports. Details to follow:

After an all-too-long wait, two of ESPN’s most popular sports shows finally made the jump to high definition today and we couldn’t help but grab a few snaps to see what they look like in 720p. One interesting note is that the network is simply letterboxing the same 16:9 feed for SD viewers, which probably explains the large font on Pardon The Interruption’s upcoming stories ticker. Naturally, Woody decided to work in an HD reference nearly every time he was up on Around the Horn today, but once the jokes and the background messages fade, we’ll still be appreciating the much, much better looking highlights.

Hopefully, more stations currently airing shows in SD will follow ESPN’s lead on this.