Undisputed
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Just one year after Shannon Sharpe suddenly bolted from FS1’s popular sports talk show Undisputed, his former co-host, Skip Bayless, is said to be calling it quits as well as the show has struggled to rediscover its appeal since Sharpe’s exit.
The New York Post is reporting that the often hated and sometimes insufferable Skip Bayless has decided to pack it up after eight years of going back and forth with Shannon Sharpe and his replacements, Richard Sherman and Michael Irvin.
Unfortunately for Bayless, audiences began to tune out after Sharpe took his talents to ESPN. In an attempt to shake things up, Bayless recruited the talents of Paul Pierce, Keyshawn Johnson, Rachel Nichols, and even Lil Wayne to stir things up, but to no avail.
With ESPN’s First Take continuing to overshadow whatever was going on on Undisputed — thanks to the big personalities of Sharpe, Stephen A. Smith, and Molly Qerim — it was only a matter of time before Skip Bayless had to accept that inevitable “L.”
Per the New York Post:
“Undisputed” ratings numbers were also hurt on the margins as Craig Carton’s lead-in show has not yet reached the metrics that “First Things First” had in the early mornings before it got moved to mid-afternoon, following “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd.
While Cowherd and Bayless were warned by colleagues that they would get “lost” leaving ESPN for FS1 in 2015 and 2016, both were successful in making the shift, as digital platforms like YouTube, X and Instagram made their audiences portable beyond linear TV.
It is expected that “Undisputed” will continue without Bayless.
For years it was rumored that Skip Bayless would eventually find his way back to ESPN where he and Stephen A. Smith had some undeniable chemistry brewing on First Take for years before Skip went to FS1 and kicked off Undisputed with Shannon Sharpe, helping launch his star into another stratosphere.
Would Skip entertain a return to First Take? Would Stephen A. and Shannon Sharpe even want to bring him into their circle given the way things have soured between Skip and his former co-hosts over the past few years? We doubt it, but hey, you never know.
Skip’s final show is said to be going down later this summer.
Would you want to see Skip Bayless back on ESPN, or are y’all good on him at this point? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Photo: gotpap/Bauer-Griffin / Getty
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Source: ANGELA WEISS / Getty
The popular sports talk show Undisputed returns after a two-month hiatus, and Lil Wayne has blessed it with a new theme song.
On Monday (August 28), the sports talk show made its return to anchor the morning lineup on FS1 after a hiatus of two months. The break was due to co-host and National Football League Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe departing the show at the conclusion of the NBA Finals and a contentious moment on-air with Skip Bayless. The return episode featured a new panel, and a new song from the iconic New Orleans native entitled, “Good Morning”.
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The energy jumps right out from the first line Lil Wayne drops: “Skip the BS and put everybody at the vs/P.S. all I spit is f-a-c-t-s”. It continues in that same vein as we see the “Mr. Carter” rapper spit his lyrics in the visual as scenes from the show are interspersed throughout: “I bite my tongue and I don’t like the taste,” he rhymes, evoking the previous opening track, “No Mercy”. “I won’t back down.” He spoke about his desire in wanting to do the new track: “Just to impress you just because I know how much you love ‘No Mercy.’ Just to capitalize on what you’ve done. It’s not complicated. It’s not hard. I love the challenge of it anyway. I attacked it like an SAT exam, like if I don’t pass this, I can’t get in.”
Bayless gushed over the new opening track and Undisputed’s new look. “Brother Wayne is as into our relaunch as I am,” Skip said in an interview. “He is the heart and soul into the relaunch and by the way, bigger picture, Wayne has agreed every Friday going forward to doing a segment with me live. He might not always be in the studio, depending on his schedule, but he is going to join me every Friday for a segment.”
Undisputed began its new era with a two-minute intro from the 71-year-old host where he declared it “the greatest morning of his career”, leading into a new panel style featuring Bayless as the host with former NFL greats Keyshawn Johnson, Michael Irvin, and Richard Sherman sitting in. The new format proved to be highly entertaining to some viewers as Bayless found out early that he wasn’t able to get a word in edgewise.
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Source: Kevork Djansezian / Getty / Shannon Sharpe
Former Undisputed Host Shannon Sharpe is allegedly heading to ESPN’s First Take to take on Stephen A. Smith.
According to Andrew Marchand and Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post, Shannon Sharpe will join ESPN’s First Take “twice per week — Mondays and Tuesdays — during the NFL season,” Pro Football Talk reports.
The reported move comes after Sharpe ditched his longtime partner Skip Bayless in June. Per Pro Football Talk, Sharpe will be replaced by another former NFL superstar, Richard Sherman, who has a dicey history with Bayless. Rapper Lil Wayne, a good friend of Bayless, will have a weekly segment on the debate show.
Following his exit, Stephen A. Smith made it clear on his podcast he wanted Shannon Sharpe to join him at First Take, and it would seem he has gotten his wish. But, in a recent episode of the Stephen A. Smith Show, screaming Stephen made it clear that nothing has been finalized yet.
“I respect Shannon, I like him, I think he would be a tremendous asset to the show, my show which is my day job, First Take, ESPN,” Smith begins. “It would be great to have him, but here’s the issue, we don’t. Sorry Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, it’s a bit premature. Shannon Sharpe has yet to sign on the dotted line to be a member of First Take.”
X Users Are Excited At The Prospect of Shannon Sharpe & Stephen A. Smith Joining Forces
Even though the news is not yet official, X users are still hilariously reacting to the report of Shannon Sharpe bringing his cognac-fueled energy to First Take.
Smith and Sharpe have electric personalities, and we are sure it will make for entertaining sports television. Until that day arrives, you can see more reactions to the possibitly of Shannon Sharpe coming to First Take in the gallery below.
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Photo: Kevork Djansezian / Getty
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Written By D.L. Chandler , Senior Editor Posted 10 mins ago @dlchandler123 D.L. Chandler is a veteran of the Washington D.C. metro writing scene, working as a journalist, reporter, and culture critic. Initially freelancing at iOne Digital in 2010, he officially joined the iOne team in 2017 where he currently works as a Senior Editor […]
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