Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith to reunite on ESPN’s ‘First Take’ for one day only
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- Skip Bayless will return to ESPN’s “First Take” for one Friday episode, reuniting with Stephen A. Smith after nearly a decade apart.
- Bayless co-hosted the sports debate show from its 2007 launch until 2016, when he left ESPN for Fox Sports’ competing show “Undisputed.”
- Smith orchestrated Bayless’s guest return after previously stating that the on-air partnership was finished.
Skip Bayless is returning to ESPN’s “First Take” — but for a very limited time only.
Bayless will join Stephen A. Smith on Friday’s episode of the popular sports debate show in what the network describes as “a one-time reunion” between the two men who haven’t hosted the program together in nearly 10 years.
“CAN’T WAIT FOR FRIDAY,” Bayless wrote Monday on X. “MORE SOON.”
Bayless appeared on “First Take” from the show’s inception in 2007 until he left ESPN in 2016. Smith has remained on “First Take,” which he currently hosts with Shae Cornette.
It was Smith’s idea to bring back Bayless as a special guest, according to a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Longtime ‘SportsCenter’ anchor Shae Cornette has been named the new hows of ‘First Take,’ ESPN’s popular sports debate show starring Stephen A. Smith.
After leaving ESPN, Bayless joined Fox Sports, where he co-hosted similarly formatted show “Undisputed” — for much of the time with co-host Shannon Sharpe — from 2016 to 2024. He currently hosts a podcast, “The Skip Bayless Show,” and is a regular contributor on the digital sports show “The Arena: Gridiron,” starring Gilbert Arenas.
In 2024, Smith addressed rumors of Bayless possibly re-joining “First Take.”
“Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith, together as partners, working across from each other on a debate show, is over,” Smith said on his podcast. “It’s been over. And this is not the first time I’ve said it. There’s no negativity or shade being thrown on Skip Bayless. I have moved on.”
