ESPN morning program First Take continues to finish at the top of the television ratings, recently completing its most-watched year ever with an average of 496,000 viewers. The program has attained 19 consecutive months of year-over-year growth and continues to grow its digital media presence on YouTube and other social media platforms. Featured commentator and executive producer Stephen A. Smith appears on the show regularly alongside host Molly Qerim, both of whom are joined by a rotation of commentators and analysts who contribute to debates and discussions. Outside of First Take, Smith also hosts his podcast, The Stephen A. Smith Show, which is produced by his production company, Mr. SAS Productions, and distributed by iHeartMedia’s podcast network.
Last year, Meadowlark Media co-founder and host Dan Le Batard welcomed Smith onto his program, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, to discuss facets of the sports media industry. A central point of the discussion surrounded Smith’s role in promoting debate culture through his work on ESPN with Skip Bayless. In the past, Le Batard has conveyed that he believes Smith is building something outside of ESPN, calling First Take an “infomercial” for what he is going to do next. In addition to The Stephen A. Smith Show podcast, Smith’s production company has been greenlit to produce a docuseries called Up for Debate and a drama series outside of ESPN and The Walt Disney Company.
Smith has expressed numerous times that he feels he is underpaid for his work at ESPN and that the deal the network inked with Pat McAfee to license his show does not bother him. Le Batard believes that Smith knows his worth to the network and has more power than ever before. In comparing and contrasting Smith and Bayless, Le Batard shared that while they make the same amount of money, Smith’s production company is an aspect of what he is working to build.
“It’s going to be powerful and impressive whether he does it with ESPN or outside of ESPN because Stephen A. Smith wants to play with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning in the sphere of, ‘I’m as big a star in sports right now as there is. I’m a media star and I’m at my company and I’m underpaid,’” Le Batard expressed. “He’s going to have an ability to get power here because he brought in Shannon Sharpe too; he carried him over.”
Smith advocated for Shannon Sharpe to join First Take as a contributor after the end of his time with FOX Sports 1 (FS1) on Undisputed. In addition to joining ESPN on this basis, Sharpe also inked a deal with Colin Cowherd’s sports media company, The Volume, to host his Club Shay Shay podcast and develop new programming under the aegis of Shay Shay Media. While there, Sharpe launched the Nightcap podcast with Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson and Gilbert Arenas with timely, insightful and entertaining discussion about collegiate and professional sports.
“We’re watching the end of Skip Bayless because those numbers are so bad, Stugotz – we were doing twice those numbers on ESPNEWS,” Le Batard said, referring to the ratings for Undisputed. “He’s coming to the end of his contract and Nick Wright is here to have the money that FOX has to offer, and Colin Cowherd’s going to do whatever he wants with him and his company and Shannon Sharpe, and they’re going to compete at the top of the game – the sports media games and the athlete games at the top of the business.”
Le Batard believes that Smith and Sharpe are in the midst of changing the sports media landscape and have liberty to build whatever they want. It is unknown whether he and Sharpe will collaborate in a business venture outside of ESPN or continue working separately. Nonetheless, Le Batard understands the trials and tribulations they have had to overcome throughout their careers to successfully build their own brands and garner ostensible leverage in the sports media industry.
“Skip Bayless created an economy; Stephen A. Smith buried it,” Le Batard said. “He’s super-competitive, he’s a conqueror and he’s getting bigger than he’s ever been. What is about to happen is he is about to, I think, shake the industry with his next contract and should because he’s a ratings monster.”
