Confirming what Awful Announcing originally reported back in June, Fox has announced that former NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe will be Skip Bayless’ co-debater on the yet-to-be-titled FS1 show that will premiere next month.
Sharpe will sit across from Bayless and they will discuss the issues just as Skippy did on First Take. The new show will air on FS1 opposite ESPN2’s First Take at 10 a.m. ET and will premiere on Tuesday, September 6.
In making the announcement, Fox Sports National Networks President Jamie Horowitz made the following celebratory quote:
“We’re thrilled to have Shannon Sharpe joining FS1,” Horowitz said. “We watched him sit across from Skip numerous times on First Take, and we saw that he is both relentless and thought-provoking. The two have diverse backgrounds and different opinions, but come together with great chemistry on television.”
As mentioned in the Horowitz quote, Sharpe has experience in debating Bayless having made guest spots on First Take sitting in for Stephen A. Smith. Now Sharpe will be back on TV full-time after being cut from The NFL Today on CBS in 2014.
“I’m thrilled to be facing a new daily challenge – squaring off with Skip on FS1,” said Sharpe. “I like and respect him, but we’ve gone at it many times and he knows I’m not going to back down from him. Maybe I’ll let him win a few.”
So the cast of the new FS1 debate show is set. All we need is the name of the show and some details. Fox promises it will release more details on the show in the coming weeks. With FS1 in need of viewers, we’ll see if the Embrace Debate 2.0 movement will be the draw that the network hopes it will be.
