Skip Bayless is officially leaving ESPN, and he will make his final appearance on “First Take” the morning after the NBA Finals. His last show will be the day after the NBA Finals’ concludes.
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“We want to thank Skip for his many contributions to ESPN”, the statement read.
The loss of Bayless will be the latest in an extremely large exodus of talent to leave ESPN over the last couple of years.
His current debate partner on First Take, Stephen A. Smith, joined the program full time in 2012.
Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk.
Throughout his tenure at ESPN, Bayless has been one of the more controversial figures in sports media.
Bayless widely is expected to land at FS1 in a yet-to-be-determined role.
ESPN has parted with a number of high-profile personalities in the past year, including Curt Schilling, Bill Simmons and Colin Cowherd.
The future of sports studio shows, he predicted, was personality programming driven by superstar sports “opinionists”.
When I tossed out Hill’s name as a potential Bayless replacement with Nathan Brice on Twitter, Hill tweeted back a few minutes later that she was not interested in the gig.
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In November, Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch reported that ESPN was prepared to offer Bayless a contract worth close to $4 million per year.
