Stephen A. Smith made it pretty clear recently in a conversation with Dan Le Batard. He is not looking to leave First Take, but he has bigger aspirations. If the show gets in the way of those aspirations, he will not have a problem moving on.
That day is going to come, my guess is sooner rather than later. When it does, ESPN will have to face a fact it may not want to – if there’s no Stephen A, then there is no First Take. If he decides that he needs to leave the show in order to accomplish all that he wants to, then the show must not go on.
Whether or not you like Stephen A. Smith is irrelevant. He has star power no one else at the network does. His NBA Countdown co-host Mike Greenberg is close, but Greeny lacks the bombast. The way Stephen A. Smith speaks and carries himself forces you to have an opinion on his opinion. Nothing is more valuable than that in this business.
First Take survived the exit of Skip Bayless in 2016. It was a major blow to the brand though. At that time, Bayless was just as important to the show as Smith was. Seeing two junkyard dogs locked in attack mode is what built the audience and kept them coming back each day.
Retooling was a necessity, but the show could survive. Fifty percent of the foundation was intact, and frankly, it was the more valuable of the two halves.
Now, is First Take the same show in 2023 that it was in 2016? Of course not! Max Kellerman was a fine co-host but no one was going to be able to replace Skip Bayless’s complete devotion to entertainment over credibility. That lead to the current system of rotating opponents, which just doesn’t work as well as ESPN wishes it did. But the show is still watched by a large audience every day and still has tremendous value in the network’s daytime lineup.
Stephen A. Smith is the reason for all of that. Without him, name any competitor you want. First Take doesn’t have an advantage over it.
Without him, what is the throughline? A show with rotating hosts does not connect the way shows with established lineups do. The audience isn’t just choosing content. They are choosing personalities. ESPN knows this. It’s the reason why First Take replaced the endless loop of SportsCenter replays that used to occupy the network’s midday block.
Smith says he wants his production company to be a force in the world of content creation and he wants to be hands-on in that process. He wants to host a late night talk show. He wants to act. He may have another book in him. Publicly, he is telling the world that he wants ESPN and First Take to fit into those plans. I would guess that privately, he knows that is impossible.
When Smith decides his time on First Take is over, the only fair thing to do is to end the show entirely. It would be a fitting tribute to him. On top of that, can you imagine being whoever is tapped to succeed Stephen A. Smith? It would be hard no matter what the role is, but the pressure that comes with taking over his role on First Take in particular would be unimaginable.
As First Take has rotated through a series of co-hosts and debate opponents for Stephen A. Smith, we have seen some stars emerge. JJ Redick has taken to the format pretty seamlessly. Marcus Spears has mastered the theatrics of televised debate. It’s not that they cannot do the job. It is that the job Smith does cannot be done by anyone else.
The day is coming. ESPN doesn’t want to think about it. Maybe Stephen A. Smith doesn’t want to think too hard about it either. But the day is coming when Stephen A. Smith decides that his time on First Take is over. Trying to go on without him would just be delaying the inevitable. The best thing the network can do is let the show and host say goodbye together and start building the next pillar of its daytime lineup.
