Andrews, whose contract is up in July, has said she has "a love affair with sports" and that ESPN is where she's "always wanted to be." But how should ESPN use somebody who's become an A-list celeb?

Andrews started by becoming an It Girl online, a sort of Anna Kournikova but with guaranteed TV time. That Andrews had a real-life stalker made her more famous — she had a sit-down with Oprah — and fame can be the key ingredient in TV careers. A dustup with one of the women of ABC's The View—Elizabeth Hasselbeck— is incontrovertible evidence of pop notoriety.

Andrews emerging triumphant in next week's Dancing With the Stars finale would be gravy since just making it that far, as with American Idol contestants, means you've arrived.

ESPN has seen on-air staffers climb the fame ladder and move on — think Keith Olbermann, Dan Patrick and Robin Roberts— but hasn't had anybody climb this far, this fast — let alone stay put.

Andrews might want to move on, and she certainly shouldn't waste her perishable fame just going back to collecting (clichéd) sound bites along sidelines. So, here's how ESPN plays it:

•Give her a late-night show: Running on ESPN2 opposite ESPN'sSportsCenter, Andrews could provide an alternative to both sports highlights and the boys club of late-night TV. While sports types' talk shows haven't worked —John McEnroe and Magic Johnson each lasted about five minutes — nothing about Andrews is typical.

•Use her on everything: Have Andrews pop up everywhere on ESPN channels and see what works. Just doing that would make her more famous — and a bigger deal wherever she ends up.

•Work her into ABC's Lostfinale this month: Use that as a springboard to keep Andrews with Disney — in entertainment.