Controversial anchor Jemele Hill is leaving SportsCenter, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Michael Smith is expected to anchor the 6 p.m. SportsCenter broadcast by himself after Hill leaves on Friday, Feb. 2.

An ESPN representative tells TV Guide that while the network has no official comment at this time, Hill approached the network about leaving SportsCenter, not the other way around.

Hill was suspended by the sports network for two weeks in October for a tweet criticizing Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Jones said that he would bench any player who knelt during the National Anthem and Hill suggested that fans who disagree with him should boycott Cowboys advertisers. ESPN said this type of political statement violated the network's social media policy.

In September, President Trump called for her firing after she called him a "white supremacist." She was not suspended at that time. In January, Donald Trump called Haiti and some African nations "s---hole countries" and said the United States should accept more immigrants from Norway, which some commentators said vindicated Hill and that ESPN should apologize for suspending her.

While these controversies probably contributed to Hill's decision to step down, sources close to the matter tell THR that Hill felt that SportsCenter was not a natural fit for her and approached ESPN executives about a different role at the company.

Hill, who started anchoring the 6 p.m. SportsCenter broadcast in February 2017, will stay with ESPN, where she has worked since 2006 and is a year into a four-year contract. She will reportedly write for The Undefeated, ESPN's black culture site, host town halls and do longform reporting and revive her popular His and Hers podcast.

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