Skip Bayless returning to ESPN’s ‘First Take’ on Friday

Photo credit: ESPN

Skip Bayless is going back to ESPN.

According to the network, Bayless will appear on First Take this Friday alongside Smith for what is being described as a one-time appearance. It will be his first time on ESPN since he left for FS1 in August 2016, nearly a decade ago. The news was first reported by Front Office Sports.

The reunion caps a relationship that has been in various states of repair and disrepair for the better part of a decade. When Bayless left ESPN for FS1 nearly nine years ago, Smith was initially furious about how it was handled, saying he found out Bayless was leaving on his own rather than hearing it from his partner directly. Bayless, for his part, has been public about an offer he had from ESPN in 2021 to return to First Take — a deal that would have placed him opposite Smith and likely pushed out Max Kellerman — only for Fox to exercise its matching clause and keep him at FS1.

When Bayless finally departed FS1 in the summer of 2024, nearly a year after Shannon Sharpe’s sudden exit from Undisputed sent the show into a death spiral it never recovered from, the reunion speculation started right back up. It didn’t last long, and, as we noted at the time, ESPN issued a statement saying it was “set with the current First Take rotation” and wished Bayless well in his future endeavors. Smith was even more direct on his own show, saying that the idea of the two working together as debate partners again was “over” — that it had been over for a while — and that he had bigger plans for himself that didn’t include bringing his old partner back.

“I have moved on,” Smith said.

For a moment, it genuinely seemed like it. But then Smith appeared on Bayless’s podcast in March 2025 — their first shared platform since Bayless left ESPN — and in November, the two were photographed together at a Beverly Hills deli alongside Bayless’s wife, Ernestine. Since then, Smith has gone out of his way to credit Bayless for building First Take into what it became, saying on his SiriusXM show that Bayless was “owed an apology” for not getting enough credit for the show’s success and for giving underrepresented voices a platform.

“That man is owed an apology. From me,” Smith said.

Since Undisputed was canceled in 2024, Bayless has been doing what he can to stay relevant. He landed a co-hosting role on The Arena: Gridiron on Underdog alongside Gilbert Arenas and has been posting regularly to his YouTube channel, where he continues to opine on the Cowboys and LeBron James to a fraction of the audience he once commanded.

Friday is the biggest stage he’s had in years, and it’s happening entirely because Smith — who signed a five-year $100 million extension, navigated Molly Qerim’s departure this past fall, and pushed to get Shannon Sharpe installed as a recurring presence after Sharpe left FS1 — decided he wanted it to. And given how publicly Smith has been rehabilitating his old partner over the past several months, it would be surprising if this is the last time.

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