ESPN will add sports talk/debate show First Take to its daytime lineup of sports news and information beginning Jan. 3. The hard-nosed and sometimes controversial sports debate show currently airing on ESPN2 is co-hosted by Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman—who joined the show in September after the departure of the show's longtime co-host Skip Bayless to Fox Sports.
First Take producer Dave Roberts recently spoke to Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the show’s impending move to ESPN. Roberts, who also serves as vice president of ESPN Audio network content, also discussed the show’s future on-air plans and addressed competition within the sports talk arena during the interview, an edited version of which appears below.
Multichannel News: How has the show evolved since the departure of Skip Bayless and the introduction of Max Kellerman, and will the roles of the current on-air hosts change at all going forward?
Dave Roberts: You know Stephen A. Smith and Max will debate and discuss the primary topics of the day, and Molly Qerim will continue to develop in her role as a strong moderator of the program. When you have talent the caliber of Steven A. and you put him along with Max Kellerman—who by the way moved from another successful franchise called Sports Nation—you have the making of a pretty strong team. We know that the chemistry development that was once in place with Stephen A Smith and Skip will not be replicated, but [Smith and Kellerman] have a great deal of respect for each other that makes it easy to help create that sense of team that the audience will continue to enjoy. So with the three of them we will be relentless in making sure that we have topics that everyone is interested in, and we will not be afraid to deal with the most controversial of topics. That has been the hallmark of this program and will continue to be so.
