As if there was any question what ESPN's flagship show is.
Screen grab: ‘First Take’ESPNBy Ben Axelrod on
At one point during Thursday’s episode of First Take, Gary Striewski and Randy Scott chided Stephen A. Smith about his lack of enthusiasm when it comes to appearing on their own show.
“Listen, they call me sometimes,” Smith replied to host Molly Qerim after she asked him why he no longer regularly appears on SportsCenter. “But they know I’m busy.”
Stephen A. Smith “used to look forward to going on SportsCenter.” But now…”they know I’m busy.” pic.twitter.com/wJUoutFshj
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 15, 2024
The exchange was good natured and it goes without saying that Smith actually is one of the busiest people in all of media. But his bluntness also underscored the recent — or perhaps not-so-recent — paradigm shift at ESPN.
In the late-90s or early-2000s, the idea of an ESPN personality merely not having enough time to appear on SportsCenter would have been unfathomable. In fact, there’s a good chance that the network’s highest paid talent — which Smith was at one point and could very well be again sometime soon — wouldn’t just have been a SportsCenter regular, but likely would have been hosting the show.
That’s obviously not the case in 2024, with ESPN having long embraced debate while SportsCenter has struggled to keep pace in a landscape where highlights are readily available on smartphones and social media. That’s not to say that SportsCenter isn’t still crucial to ESPN’s lineup. But in terms of being the network’s flagship show, that’s clearly a title that has belonged to First Take for the better part of the past decade.
That much has been made evident this week as First Take welcomedSportsCenter‘s anchors to its show. What initially appeared to be a cute gimmick aimed at bridging the gap from the dog days of summer to the all-important football season has proven to be so much more, with the likes of Matt Barrie, Shae Cornette, Elle Duncan, Randy Scott, Gary Striewski, Nicole Briscoe and Michael Eaves using the platform to showcase their personalities and talents they don’t always get to utilize onSportsCenter.
Obviously, the idea of SportsCenter anchors being big personalities is nothing new and the current crop of hosts are far from — as they say in the industry — “prompter jockeys.” But it’s one thing to showcase your personality between highlights and interviews or on social media and another to do it on a program like First Take, which requires its hosts to be the main attraction.
This week, the SportsCenter anchors lived up to that and then some.
With Smith still on vacation, Barrie and Cornette served as the talking heads for Monday’s show alongside host Christine Williamson, doing so in a manner in which First Take didn’t skip a beat. On Wednesday, Duncan more than held her own against a returning Smith and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo — no easy feat — while Thursday’s episode began with Smith taking on the tag team of Striewski and Scott before pivoting to a more nuanced segment regarding Colin Kaepernick with with Briscoe and Eaves.
SportsCenter anchor Gary Striewski understood the First Take assignment. Names Dak Prescott as the quarterback most apt to beat Patrick Mahomes. pic.twitter.com/HKW6njsLzI
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 15, 2024
Randy Scott on Aaron Rodgers: “He’s on the wrong side of 40. As somebody who’s been through a midlife crisis and I’ve got four tattoos to show for it. This man’s midlife crisis is Ayahuasca, Egypt trips, and sparring with his head coach in the media in the biggest city in the… pic.twitter.com/mT0MBFPXWH
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 15, 2024
It’s hardly surprising that the SportsCenter anchors met the moment, as anybody familiar with their work — particularly Duncan, Stiewski and Scott’s — could easily envision them being First Take regulars. The bigger story here, however, is ESPN not only leaning into its new flagship show, but using it to give its SportsCenter anchors some shine in what will hopefully become a yearly — or even more regular — tradition for the Worldwide Leader.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.
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