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Skip Bayless will not go gentle into that good night.
After being pushed out of Fox Sports this summer, Bayless sounded delusional at times during an interview with Ben Strauss of The Washington Post. Still, the 72-year-old sports TV legend is eyeing a comeback, with new projects ranging from a book to a screenplay and, of course, a new debate show.
Let’s start with the delusion. Bayless told Strauss it “dumbfounds” him that former Undisputed sparring Shannon Sharpe felt disrespected. Or that Bayless had nothing to do with forcing Sharpe off the show in 2023. Nice try, Skip. But you can’t rewrite history. During their seven years together, sources tell me Bayless made it clear to Fox management in Los Angeles that he was Batman to Sharpe’s Robin.
Bayless, who earned approximately $8 million per year on his final Fox contract, made roughly double the salary of his costar. He called the shots on the show. The unequal relationship between Bayless and Sharpe deteriorated to the point where they nearly came to blows on-air. During their fiercest argument, an imperious Bayless ordered Sharpe to put his glasses back on—sounding like a principal scolding an unruly student. No disrespect there, right, Skip?
But the wily Bayless didn’t rise from local newspaper columnist to national TV star by accident. I think Bayless correctly analyzed why and how Undisputed went from would-be First Take competitor to TV roadkill—and how he ended up on the curb of Pico Boulevard.
Where Things Went Wrong
Fox blew it by siding with him instead of Sharpe. The network backed the wrong horse at a time when Sharpe was ascending in popularity and Bayless was fading. Now Sharpe is one of the biggest stars in sports media, hosting the Club Shay Shay podcast, starring on First Take, and possibly taking over if Stephen A. Smith leaves. My sources tell me Bayless genuinely blames Fox for not settling the dispute between him and Sharpe. Hence his claim to be “shocked” they didn’t fight to keep the pair together.
Bayless is also right in saying it was a big mistake for Undisputed to go dark for two months following Sharpe’s exit. Don’t mess with the viewing habits of morning TV viewers. That decision pushed many of them to Smith’s First Take and they never came back. When Smith recruited Sharpe to join him this year, it was game, set, match.
Bayless is also correct it was a foolish strategy to make him the moderator on the revamped Undisputed. That head-scratching move effectively made Bayless a supporting player on his own show. Nobody wants a kinder, gentler Bayless, facilitating a discussion. He’s best as a bomb-thrower, the enfant terrible of morning TV firing off outrageous hot takes.
Still, Bayless is not lying down. He’s scheduled to appear on Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take today. He appears to be launching a media tour to repair his rep (His wife, Ernestine Sclafani Bayless, is a respected PR pro). To paraphrase Dylan Thomas, the godfather of “embrace debate” plans to rage against the dying of the light. But is his audience gone for good? We’ll find out.
The canceled Undisputed was replaced by The Facility, which premiered Sept. 3. Above, you can see how video views on YouTube have tracked for the channel since its heyday when Sharpe was on the show, the substantial dip they took during the show’s hiatus, a spike with the new cast, then a drop-off to approximately half of the peak metrics. The views dropped off a cliff as Undisputed went off the air, and a new cast, led by Emmanuel Acho, is trying to rebuild within that time slot under a new name and identity.
