For the second straight year, Fox Sports 1’s flagship morning show is losing a big name. A year after Shannon Sharpe got pushed out of Undisputed, landing on ESPN’s First Take, Skip Bayless is leaving the show that was built around him eight years ago, according to Ryan Glasspiel of the New York Post.
Per Glasspiel, Bayless’ final show will be later this summer and while it’s not clear what is next for the 72-year-old Bayless, on the FS1 side, the show is expected to go on without Bayless involved. Since Sharpe’s departure, they’ve had a rotating cast with Rachel Nichols, Keyshawn Johnson, Paul Pierce, Richard Sherman, and Michael Irvin joining Bayless on Undisputed, but the show has failed to truly recover from losing Sharpe as a permanent sparring partner for Skip.
It’s a seismic change for FS1, but it stands to wonder if fans had finally grown tired of Bayless’ schtick. Ratings for Undisputed struggled, particularly in this new iteration without Sharpe, and at times his efforts at sparking discourse on some of his favorite topics (like LeBron James and the Dallas Cowboys) came off as rather desperate. Even so, it’s hard to imagine what the audience is for Undisputed without Bayless serving as the provocateur. Making matters even more interesting for FS1’s future is Colin Cowherd’s contract running up this fall, meaning their two biggest additions when the network first started could be exiting in the same year.
