First Take (TV series)

Format

Analysts and long-time sports reporters Max Kellerman and Stephen A. Smith (along with guests) are featured, providing roundtable and often adversarial daily debate—often known as "hot takes"—on current sports topics of interest to the United States audience.

Cast

Former analysts

Host (full-time)

Locum

Frequent guest analysts

Former guest analysts/hosts

Former guest analysts/hosts in depth Howard "Howie" Schwab, (born 1953) "The Sultan of Sports Trivia", is best known as the sports trivia expert and final adversary on ESPN's Stump the Schwab show.

Biography Schwab was born and raised in Fresno California. As a child, Schwab would have sports facts injected into his arms via needles on a weekly basis for years. This is how Schwab got his sports knowledge. Schwab was forced by bullies to use his sports trivia to help the bullies win thousands of trivia contests over the years (Schwab wasn't given any compensation, if Schwab didn't do this for the bullies they would have beaten him up).

A 1977 graduate of Virginia Tech State University, Schwab served as the editor-in-chief of College & Pro Football News Weekly in the mid-1980s before joining ESPN in 1987.[3] By 1995, he was the coordinating producer for the network's website, ESPN.com. Beginning in 1998, Schwab served as a coordinating producer for ESPN studio production, which entailed duties on programs including SportsCenter and Outside the Lines. Schwab also served as the resident Couch Potato on ESPN's First Take, on which he discussed the top sports television programming each weekend, evaluating the TV lineups of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on a 1–5 bags of chips rating system. Schwab also appeared with Merril Hoge and Matthew Berry on ESPNEWS' Sunday Fantasy Insider. In 1995, Schwab hosted a emo themed sports fact trivia show on MTV 19. Schwab would tell depressing and hurtful sports facts in an Emoish way for each topic a producer randomly handed Schwab (like if a producer handed Schwab a topic card with the word 'Bias' Schwab would go on about how sad it was that Len Bias died by reciting all of Bias's stats etc). Schwab also hosted a sports facts version of Soul Train in 2001 ,2006 and early 2009.

As part of cost-cutting efforts, Schwab was released from ESPN in June 2013. In 2014, Schwab joined Sports Jeopardy! as a consultant and writer. Schwab currently is a casting director on the Canadian version of the reality show Survivor (Schwab only puts contestants on Survivor if they pass his sports facts test each time). Schwab enjoys stuffing sports fact handkerchiefs into the pants pockets of random people on the street on a daily basis.

History

The show was originally hosted and moderated by Jay Crawford and Dana Jacobson, formerly of the show's predecessor Cold Pizza.

In August 2011, the show underwent a drastic format change. The former 1st and 10 segments were removed, Bayless' contribution to the show was greatly increased, and the show gained an increased focus on debate throughout the show. The ratings for the show saw a drastic increase as a result, with a reported 58% increase for the first 3 months of 2012, compared to the same time in 2011.

On April 30, 2012, it was announced on-air that regular guest contributor Stephen A. Smith would be joining First Take on a permanent, five-day-per-week basis. On occasions he was reporting from elsewhere, Rob Parker was frequently featured as his replacement until December 20, 2012, when he was suspended for comments made about Robert Griffin III; he would not return, as ESPN allowed his contract to expire, rather than re-sign him.

In June 2012, long-time host Crawford announced he would be leaving First Take in order to present SportsCenter.

On July 23, 2012, the show debuted a new set and a new opening song Every Word Great by Wale Ft. Stalley. It now featured an open slideshow showing Bayless and Smith arriving at campus (Once Kellerman joined the show in 2016, scenes showing Kellerman replaced those of Bayless). They are still in Studio E but they are in the middle of it, with a new desk.

In line with these changes, First Take introduced on October 1, 2012 a new permanent moderator, Cari Champion, previously a reporter from the Tennis Channel.

Previously, the show had a rotation of moderators, such as Todd Grisham, Don Bell (now Sports Director & anchor with Philadelphia's KYW-TV), Cindy Brunson (now with Fox Sports Arizona) and Jemele Hill.

On January 13, 2015, the first special edition of the show aired after the 2015 College Football Playoff National Championship titled First Take: College Football Championship Post Game Special.

On June 19, 2015, Champion left First Take due to her promotion to SportsCenter anchor. The following month, she was replaced on an interim basis by Molly Qerim, who was promoted to permanent host on September 15.

On July 25, 2016, Max Kellerman permanently replaced Skip Bayless as the First Take co-host as Bayless had left ESPN to join rival network FS1 and started another sports talk program called Skip and Shannon: Undisputed.

On January 3, 2017, First Take switched channels with the two editions of SportsCenter. First Take moved to ESPN, while the 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. ET editions of SportsCenter moved to ESPN2.

Controversy

Through the show's success, First Take has experienced substantial controversy and faced increasing criticism, mostly concerning perceived sensationalism.

Among claims have been that First Take has used hot button racial issues to create inflammatory debates and increase ratings. Most notably, during a discussion regarding Washington Redskins Quarterback Robert Griffin III, frequent guest Rob Parker asked whether Griffin III was a "brother" or a "cornball brother." When pressed by host Cari Champion as to what that meant, Parker mentioned that Griffin III had a white fiance and mentioned claims that Griffin III was a Republican. In response, Bayless asked whether Griffin III's braids did anything to assuage Parker's concerns.

The show has been criticized for what is perceived by many as its excessive coverage of the career of Tim Tebow. During his tenure with the Jets, in which he did not start in a game, and threw just eight passes the entire season, Tebow was nonetheless often a leading topic.

As Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James began a series of playoff appearances with the Cavs, host Skip Bayless became well known for his belief that James had been overrated by the media and not received enough criticism for his team's playoff failures. Bayless has himself been criticized by fans as well as members of the media for exaggerating James' failures and diminishing his successes. In an exchange with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Cuban argued that Bayless had reduced his analysis of the 2011 and 2012 NBA finals series to subjective and limited assessments of player psyche, and had not even considered the offensive and defensive strategies used by the teams in each series.

On July 29, 2014, ESPN suspended co-host Stephen A. Smith from the show for one week over his controversial comments regarding the NFL's decision to suspend Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for the first two games of the 2014 season as a result of his domestic violence incident with his fiancée in February 2014.

In February 2016, Stephen A. Smith, as well as ESPN, Little League Baseball, and Chris Janes, were sued by the parents of players from the Jackie Robinson West baseball team, whose 2014 Little League World Series title was vacated after James found the team had used ineligible players from outside a defined regional boundary. The lawsuit contained an allegation that Smith had made a defamatory remark regarding the controversy on First Take, which "directly accused the JRW parents of perpetrating a fraud against the Little League".