ESPN’s Amina Smith gets first shot at replacing Molly Qerim on ‘First Take’

As First Take enters life after Molly Qerim, the ESPN morning debate show is beginning to audition potential replacements.

First up: Amina Smith, who hosted Monday’s episode featuring Stephen A. Smith remote from Baltimore and Cam Newton and Dan Orlovsky live in-studio.

Amina Smith’s hosting gig marked the first time that a traditional host has played point guard for the show since Qerim’s abrupt departure from the Worldwide Leader in Sports early last week. With the UConn alum’s exit coming on short notice last Monday night, Smith hosted the week’s final four episodes, with ESPN president of content Burke Magnus revealing to The Athletic that the show would spend the next “30 to 45 days” trying out potential full-time hosts.

“While we knew we were going to make a change — her deal ran through the end of the year — we were more focused on that timeline,” Magnus told The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch, while also revealing that Qerim would have been moving away from First Take at the end of 2025 even if she had remained with ESPN. “So we’re going to take probably about 30 to 45 days to try a variety of in-house people because we can do that on the show. Then we’ll make a decision shortly after that.”

As for Smith, the University of Miami alum has been with ESPN since 2024, following a stint at NBC Sports Boston. She has primarily served as a SportsCenter anchor in her year-plus with the network, with her resume also including stops at Fox Sports, the Big Ten Network, BET Networks, and Stadium Sports.

At this point, it’s unclear exactly how many other talents ESPN wants to tryout before landing on a full-time replacement for Qerim in the next month and a half. But Smith getting the first shot seemingly bodes well for her chances of securing the gig as the Worldwide Leader looks to fill a key role on one of its most important shows.