Tosh blasts ESPN, accuses network of stealing segment

Comedian Daniel Tosh is slamming ESPN on his Comedy Central show, “Tosh.0,” accusing the network of stealing his main weekly bit and adding it to “SportsCenter.”

For almost five minutes Tuesday night, Tosh hammered ESPN after “SportsCenter” recently introduced a feature called “Awesome Video Segment,” which appears to use the same formula — and catchphrases such as “give it another shot” — that Tosh uses for his “Web Redemption.”

ESPN told The L.A. Times that its new segment will continue.

“This was more of an instance of us using a common phrase than it was copying his wording,” an ESPN spokesman told The Times in an email. “We know that doesn’t sound like the strongest explanation, yet it’s the truth.”

“Awesome Video Segment” gave Canadian national anthem singer Mark Donnelly “another shot” after he was captured on video falling while skating and singing before the start of a hockey game.

Tosh said he was disgusted by ESPN and called the network unprofessional for ripping off his idea.

“You … hacks are cheaping my brand,” he said. “I’m fine with kids in high school or college plagiarizing, but once you work for a real network, you should have some … self-respect.”

Going tit for tat, Tosh introduced a new segment, “Sport Science.0,” his version of ESPN’s “Sports Science.” Tosh’s version used “science” to address, in his opinion, how bad ESPN analysts are at their jobs.

ESPN is not backing down.

“We are looking forward to ‘giving it another shot’ in future installments of ‘The Awesome Video Segment,'” the ESPN spokesman wrote.

Comedy Central said it had no additional comment.