Love it or hate it, Skip Bayless will be back on ‘First Take’

Credit: ESPN

Skip Bayless’s return to ESPN was branded as a one-off, but after getting a taste of First Take again, it won’t be another 10 years before he debates Stephen A. Smith again.

Smith and ESPN won’t care whether you asked for it; they won’t even really care if you liked it; they’ll care whether you watched it, and they’ll care whether it created social media buzz. Love it or hate it, Smith and Bayless still garner attention together.

The reunion was a dud in terms of creating new content. There were no new fireworks; this was a Temu version of the fiery debates between Bayless and Smith. They played their greatest hits with Tim Tebow, LeBron James, the Dallas Cowboys, and Skip’s degrading nicknames. But the 2026 versions of those debates did not hit the way they did 15 years ago.

Take any one of the recycled segments from Friday’s reunion, and you can probably find 10 much better videos on YouTube featuring Bayless and Smith arguing the same topic from a decade or two ago. The same thing happens anytime Mike and the Mad Dog have a reunion. Because they’re just happy to be in the same room again, there isn’t the same level of tension that existed when they were competing every single day for years.

But now that the pleasantries have been exchanged and the nostalgia itch has been scratched, the gloves should be off the next time Bayless returns to First Take. And make no mistake about it, there will be a next time, and a next time, and a next time.

Remember when Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo’s initial First Take cameo was supposed to be a one-off? Russo gained enough attention to be welcomed back and was eventually offered a weekly chair on First Take. Smith and Bayless were similarly way too chummy about this reunion to just shake hands and wave goodbye for another ten years.

It’s fair to question why now? But this is really the first time in the last ten years that Smith and Bayless could have reunited. For eight years, Bayless was Smith’s top competition after launching a sort of copycat version of First Take on FS1 with Shannon Sharpe. And two years ago, Sharpe was on First Take, which would have made it awkward for Smith also to bring Bayless onto the show as a regular contributor when he exited FS1. But when ESPN moved on from Sharpe as he dealt with his since-settled sexual assault lawsuit last summer, it opened the door for a reunion with Bayless on First Take.

The question is whether Bayless is still fit for First Take. Smith abandoned the format Bayless created on First Take after deciding Max Kellerman wasn’t a worthy opponent. To Smith’s credit, he grew the show by going with a rotating cast of contributors. But Smith still gets a different twinkle in his eye every time he breaks into a screaming match with Russo. And adding Bayless semi-regularly will only increase the opportunity for those viral screaming bouts.

Everyone complains that Smith and Bayless spawned a generation of hot-take artists who can’t live up to the moniker as well as they did. Don’t want them to debate new hot take artists? Then they’ll just debate each other. Bayless certainly wouldn’t say no to the exposure. He can hold on to his eight years at FS1 as a success while claiming that a new weekly spot on First Take will help promote his digital ventures.

Smith and Bayless may not have proved they can debate with the same passion they did ten years ago during Friday’s reunion. They may not have proved this reunion was something sports fans were clamoring for. But Smith and Bayless did prove they’re still capable of garnering attention. The rubbernecking aspect of that intrigue might wear off if Smith and Bayless were together again five days a week, but it will still be there in spurts. Because Smith and Bayless are dedicated to playing their greatest hits, and it’s hard to imagine they won’t look to do it again once the NFL season rolls around.

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