Skip Bayless — like Stephen A. Smith, his partner on ESPN2’s “First Take”— is loved and loathed. He takes sides. He fulminates. He says things he shouldn’t.
His daily face-offs against Smith are chronicled online as if they were 21st-century Lincoln-Douglas debates gone mad, with a lot of Tim Tebow talk thrown in to drive us crazy.
And now he is leaving, heading almost certainly to the only network that wants and needs him: FS1, which is trying to build its own debate-show culture, with Bayless as its leading town crier.
Bayless’s “First Take” finale will be the day after the N.B.A. finals, but he will leave ESPN when his contract expires, at the end of August.
This is the latest loss of big-name talent at ESPN: Last year, for various reasons, Keith Olbermann, Bill Simmons, Jason Whitlock and Colin Cowherd left. Earlier this week, Mike Tirico chose to say goodbye after a quarter-century and move to NBC Sports, where, it appears, he may get a shot at replacing Al Michaels on “Sunday Night Football” and Bob Costas as the Olympics prime-time host.
I don’t get the sense that Bayless is leaving because of any concerns at ESPN about paying high-priced talent while it is losing subscribers to cord-cutting. This is, it seems, Bayless flush with nearly a decade of rising success at ESPN, looking to receive greater riches and, possibly, more control at Fox-owned FS1.
The deal with FS1 is not done yet, but there is no reason to think it will unravel. Bayless turned down ESPN’s offer last Friday and he is talking to FS1 executives, chiefly Jamie Horowitz, the former coordinating producer of “First Take,” who is the president of Fox Sports national networks. He has worked with Bayless and, since going to Fox, coveted him. Now, it appears, he has him.
Horowitz cannot reunite Bayless with Smith, who renewed his contract last year for over $3 million annually.
ESPN is left with a major question: Who, among its talking heads, is capable of replacing Bayless? It may not be easy to find the right person. Chemistry is difficult to manufacture. You need the right mix of intelligence and bloviating. ESPN can’t throw just anyone onto “First Take” and expect him or her to match hardheaded wits against Smith, a verbal force who occasionally gets into trouble with his bosses. His remarks about domestic violence during the Ray Rice scandal earned him a suspension. ESPN’s former ombudsman Robert Lipsyte wrote in 2014 that the positives of a show like “First Take” (a growing audience and some “thought-provoking, entertaining television”) also mean that ESPN has to “live with — or at least take more responsibility — when that particular septic tank overflows.”
By the cold analysis of Nielsen viewership, the debates — septic or otherwise — bring in lots of viewers. “First Take” attracted 412,000 viewers in the first three months of 2016, a record for the show during the first quarter; the show hit its peak average viewership in the fourth quarter last year with an average of 483,000 viewers.
By comparison, “Mike & Mike,” the two-man show that precedes “First Take,” saw its viewership rise 16 percent in the first quarter this year, to 274,000. Maybe Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic should get red-faced more often.
“I don’t mean to be flippant about replacing Skip easily,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN’s executive vice president for production. “But I feel very confident that we’ll continue to innovate the show and build on the success that the two of them had. It’s not like we haven’t faced things like this before. But we’ve been pretty adept at navigating successful change.”
ESPN will also have to replace Tirico, a likable versatile announcer who probably could have called “Monday Night Football” for another 15 or 20 years. But Tirico’s role is less personality-driven than Bayless’s was. Those who watch “First Take” tune in for Smith vs. Bayless. Tirico sets up Jon Gruden, he doesn’t debate him, which doesn’t mean ESPN won’t miss him.
“He’s contributed a ridiculous level to virtually every platform we have — college football, ‘Monday Night Football,’ ‘SportsCenter’ — and he means a lot to the fabric of this place,” Williamson said. “But this creates opportunities for other people. Not to minimize what he’s contributed to us, but I’m very confident we have people who can step up and build on his work.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/s...pn.html&eventName=Watching-article-click&_r=0
His daily face-offs against Smith are chronicled online as if they were 21st-century Lincoln-Douglas debates gone mad, with a lot of Tim Tebow talk thrown in to drive us crazy.
And now he is leaving, heading almost certainly to the only network that wants and needs him: FS1, which is trying to build its own debate-show culture, with Bayless as its leading town crier.
Bayless’s “First Take” finale will be the day after the N.B.A. finals, but he will leave ESPN when his contract expires, at the end of August.
This is the latest loss of big-name talent at ESPN: Last year, for various reasons, Keith Olbermann, Bill Simmons, Jason Whitlock and Colin Cowherd left. Earlier this week, Mike Tirico chose to say goodbye after a quarter-century and move to NBC Sports, where, it appears, he may get a shot at replacing Al Michaels on “Sunday Night Football” and Bob Costas as the Olympics prime-time host.
I don’t get the sense that Bayless is leaving because of any concerns at ESPN about paying high-priced talent while it is losing subscribers to cord-cutting. This is, it seems, Bayless flush with nearly a decade of rising success at ESPN, looking to receive greater riches and, possibly, more control at Fox-owned FS1.
The deal with FS1 is not done yet, but there is no reason to think it will unravel. Bayless turned down ESPN’s offer last Friday and he is talking to FS1 executives, chiefly Jamie Horowitz, the former coordinating producer of “First Take,” who is the president of Fox Sports national networks. He has worked with Bayless and, since going to Fox, coveted him. Now, it appears, he has him.
Horowitz cannot reunite Bayless with Smith, who renewed his contract last year for over $3 million annually.
ESPN is left with a major question: Who, among its talking heads, is capable of replacing Bayless? It may not be easy to find the right person. Chemistry is difficult to manufacture. You need the right mix of intelligence and bloviating. ESPN can’t throw just anyone onto “First Take” and expect him or her to match hardheaded wits against Smith, a verbal force who occasionally gets into trouble with his bosses. His remarks about domestic violence during the Ray Rice scandal earned him a suspension. ESPN’s former ombudsman Robert Lipsyte wrote in 2014 that the positives of a show like “First Take” (a growing audience and some “thought-provoking, entertaining television”) also mean that ESPN has to “live with — or at least take more responsibility — when that particular septic tank overflows.”
By the cold analysis of Nielsen viewership, the debates — septic or otherwise — bring in lots of viewers. “First Take” attracted 412,000 viewers in the first three months of 2016, a record for the show during the first quarter; the show hit its peak average viewership in the fourth quarter last year with an average of 483,000 viewers.
By comparison, “Mike & Mike,” the two-man show that precedes “First Take,” saw its viewership rise 16 percent in the first quarter this year, to 274,000. Maybe Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic should get red-faced more often.
“I don’t mean to be flippant about replacing Skip easily,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN’s executive vice president for production. “But I feel very confident that we’ll continue to innovate the show and build on the success that the two of them had. It’s not like we haven’t faced things like this before. But we’ve been pretty adept at navigating successful change.”
ESPN will also have to replace Tirico, a likable versatile announcer who probably could have called “Monday Night Football” for another 15 or 20 years. But Tirico’s role is less personality-driven than Bayless’s was. Those who watch “First Take” tune in for Smith vs. Bayless. Tirico sets up Jon Gruden, he doesn’t debate him, which doesn’t mean ESPN won’t miss him.
“He’s contributed a ridiculous level to virtually every platform we have — college football, ‘Monday Night Football,’ ‘SportsCenter’ — and he means a lot to the fabric of this place,” Williamson said. “But this creates opportunities for other people. Not to minimize what he’s contributed to us, but I’m very confident we have people who can step up and build on his work.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/s...pn.html&eventName=Watching-article-click&_r=0
