ESPN and EA Sports To Air Madden Nation

ESPN AND EA SPORTS TO AIR
MADDEN NATION: FIRST REALITY
SERIES IN WHICH MADDEN NFL FOOTBALL GAMERS COMPETE FOR $100,000

NFL
STARS SHAUN ALEXANDER, DWIGHT FREENEY, BEN ROETHLISBERGER AND OTHERS FEATURED

ESPN has teamed up with Electronic Arts and
its EA SPORTS™ brand to take viewers inside the world of
Madden NFL 06—the nation’s
top-selling sports video game—and its best players for the first video game
reality series Madden Nation.
Starting Tuesday, Dec. 6 at 11 and 11:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2, the eight-episode
series (Tuesdays at 11 and 11:30 p.m.)
will pit the nation’s 13 best
Madden NFL 06 gamers—along with their real-life NFL player
sponsors—against each other in elimination-style tournaments on a 17-day
national bus tour. NFL players Shaun Alexander, Ben Roethlisberger, Dwight
Freeney and others will be featured with their corresponding player
representatives during each stop of the tour. The finale, which will be aired
Tuesday, Dec. 27, was shot in New
York’s Times Square on the ABC Super Sign. The winner claimed a $100,000
prize.

“Madden
Nation will give ESPN viewers the best of both worlds: exciting,
top-level competition and some of football’s best known players in the biggest
game on the market,” said John Skipper, ESPN executive vice president,
content.

With scenarios designed to test the players’
skills, each tournament will make the
gamers compete against each other and “free agents” they meet along the way.
Tour stops include: Los Angeles; San Diego; Phoenix; Albuquerque, N.M.;
Denver; Kansas City, Mo.; Minneapolis; Green Bay, Wis.; Chicago; Indianapolis;
Canton, Ohio; Baltimore; Washington; Philadelphia and New York, and will take
place, in part, in the NFL players’ homes. In all, the tour bus logged 4,646
miles.

“Madden
Nation showcases the EA SPORTS lifestyle,
giving viewers an inside look into the daily life of the biggest
Madden NFL
football gamers and NFL players,”
said Todd Sitrin, vice president of marketing, EA-Tiburon and EA SPORTS. “ESPN
is the perfect outlet to show this unique pairing of the top
Madden NFL football players.”

Each gamer is matched with an NFL player and
meets him along the tour.

Gamers/Hometowns   

                                               
NFL Sponsors/Teams

Dan “PackWolf” Bertholomey
(Portland, Ore.)                   Ashley Lelie (Denver Broncos)

Justin “Chow” Chow (Great
Falls, Va.)                              Tony Gonzalez (Kansas City Chiefs)

Raymond “Shopmaster” Goode
(Waldorf, Md.)                  Shaun Alexander (Seattle Seahawks)

David “Dred” Grant (St.
Petersburg, Fla.)
Michael Vick (Atlanta Falcons)

Daniel “Clark Kent” Grundei
(Cincinnati)                           Ben Roethlisberger (Pittsburgh
Steelers)

Kyle “The Gift” Hustek
(Detroit)                                        Roy Williams (Detroit Lions)

Christopher “Action” Jackson
(Atlanta)                             Byron Leftwich (Jacksonville Jaguars)

Sherman “Sherman Sticky”
Jameson (Midland, Texas)      Chad Johnson (Cincinnati Bengals)

Rodney “NJMaddenBaller”
Lane   (Dover, N.J.)                 Jevon Kearse (Philadelphia Eagles)

Charles “Solution” Smith
(San Diego)                               Donnie Edwards (San Diego Chargers)

Rob “Duka” Taylor
(Youngstown, Ohio)                             Ed Reed (Baltimore Ravens)

Antoin “Pretty Boy” Williams
(San Antonio)                      Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona Cardinals)

Rod “Reality” Wynn
(Inglewood, Calif.)                             Dwight Freeney (Indianapolis
Colts)

ESPN
Original Entertainment

Launched in 2001, ESPN Original
Entertainment is ESPN’s award-winning original programming banner.  The EOE
brand spans ESPN’s sports-themed original movies, scripted and unscripted
dramatic series, daily talk and debate series, documentaries, game shows,
and such groundbreaking televised events as the X Games, Winter X Games, and
The ESPY Awards.  EOE’s daily lifestyle and entertainment-themed series are
also the cornerstone of ESPN2’s new programming lineup, featuring the flagship
shows

ESPN Hollywood,
Quite Frankly, and
Cold Pizza.  With over 100 new
scripted and unscripted projects in development, EOE continues to plant itself
firmly on the cutting edge of sports and entertainment television and event
creation.  Serving both the passionate sports fan and the more casual viewer,
EOE strives to expand ESPN’s already industry-leading offerings in live events
and sports news & information programming.