At 71 years old, it’s reasonable to wonder whether retirement if nearing for Skip Bayless, but his fans should fear not, because he’s got a lot left.
Longtime executive vice president of content for FS1, Charlie Dixon recently spoke to Derek Futterman of Barrett Sports Media, and during the interview, Bayless’ name was obviously broached. After parting ways with Shannon Sharpe over the summer, Bayless and Undisputed are in a sort of transitional mode, attempting to trade incessant debate for more rounded conversation.
Instead of replacing Sharpe with one co-host on Undisputed, Bayless and Fox Sports opted to bring in a rotating cast of contributors, similar to the route Stephen A. Smith took First Take when he booted Max Kellerman from the show more than two years ago.
“We definitely did not lean on what First Take was doing; we were leaning on what I thought was best for what people are trying to consume right now, and I think Skip has so much more to offer than just the debate thing,” Dixon told BSM. “He’s the best-ever on earth at the debate format, and we still have some part of that in the show, but the reality is the guy’s had an amazing career.”
“The three months is very hard to reformat for a person who’s kind of redefined a category, right?” Dixon continued. “Everybody would admit it that he created the debate format, and then he’s evolving the show where it takes a minute. Now all of these people are really resonating towards our goal of, ‘Let’s just have the most impressive conversation in all of sports television,’ and he’s working on that; it takes a minute.”
Bayless may not have created the debate format, but he definitely put it on steroids. Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser helped spawn sports debate as a format, Bayless took it to the level of, ‘If you’re not yelling, you’re not trying.’
Three months into attempting to have more conversations than arguments, Bayless seems a little lost at times. It works for First Take because Smith likes to have fun. Bayless, however, looks uncomfortable when he’s trying to have fun. But credit him for trying something different. At 71 years old, it probably would have been easier for Bayless to find someone to sit across from and yell with every day. But apparently, he still has too much to offer to revert back to old tricks.
