In the mid-2010s ESPN’s First Take with Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless dominated all sports talk shows. In the years since they parted ways, they’ve occasionally reunited to talk shop. Now they’re doing it again.
In an official announcement on Wednesday, ESPN announced that Bayless will return to the network and appear on First Take for the second time this year.
“Friday, @RealSkipBayless returns to @FirstTake with @stephenasmith , @shaepeppler & Marcus Spears all from remote locations,” ESPN said on X.
Money on the Mind
According to Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, the pair will debate the upcoming Cowboys-Ravens game and Texas-Tennessee game, along with their NBA Top 10 rankings.
“ENCORE: @RealSkipBayless will return to ESPN’s @FirstTake this Friday with old partner @stephenasmith . The duo will debate Cowboys-Ravens, Texas-Tennessee and NBA Top 10 rankings. Their first reunion show in May averaged 647,000 viewers. That was up 24% from normal viewership,” McCarthy wrote on X.
McCarthy noted that their reunion show in May delivered a 24-percent higher viewership than normal. If this show does just as well, that could result in ESPN giving Bayless even more airtime in the months to come.
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Bayless was part of the show for the first 10 years of its existence after the show started up in 2007. But it was the addition of Stephen A. Smith in 2012 that really sent the show into the stratosphere.
From 2012 until Bayless’ departure in 2016, it was a ratings juggernaut thanks in no small part to their furious debates over the topics like the Dallas Cowboys, Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather and – most famously of all – whether the NBA’s all-time greatest is Michael Jordan or LeBron James.
To no one’s surprise, two of those three topics will be broached when they reunite again on Friday.
If it ain’t broke…
