Speak is quietly FS1’s longest-running studio show, but its latest incarnation feels as unplanned as it has been since FS1 tried pairing Colin Cowherd and Jason Whitlock back in 2016.
FS1’s early-evening panel show absorbed the athlete crew who used to join Skip Bayless on Undisputed each morning, pairing Keyshawn Johnson and Paul Pierce with anchor Joy Taylor. While it’s impossible to judge a show after a week, the trio isn’t yet on the same page, struggling to find topics or tones where they all can meet.
While the departure of Emmanuel Acho has given Taylor more room to show personality and give opinions, it’s hard not to think of initial reports suggesting FS1 wanted to keep those two together while watching Taylor try and fail to bring lively discussion out of her new cohosts. Taylor did her time on The Herd and the prior Speak format and feels more than ready to hold down a show built around her stylings. Instead, the loose, big-brother/little-brother energy coming from Johnson and Pierce fails to complement Taylor’s no-BS point of view as a sports opinionist.
Johnson came up at ESPN in more personality-driven segments and goofing around on morning radio, but has never found a groove at FS1. He rarely could muster the intensity required to spin around at the debate dais with a Tasmanian devil like Bayless, and while he has captured some chemistry with Pierce, that mostly revolves around keeping Pierce in check when he forgets he’s on live television. But given that Taylor has family roots in the NFL and a long career in sports media, it would be easy to imagine her finding a better groove with Johnson than Bayless could. Football debates between these two are the best thing Speak has going right now.
The real weak link is Pierce. The Basketball Hall of Famer made headlines in 2021 when he was fired by ESPN after an unfortunate Instagram live broadcast, but Chad Finn of the Boston Globe noted at the time that Pierce’s role was already reduced two years prior after “his preparation sometimes came into question.”
Without any knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes at Fox’s Los Angeles studios, it certainly feels that way watching Pierce on Speak. On Wednesday’s episode, Pierce had little to offer beyond the most big-picture observations during segments on the Miami Dolphins, about which he said “something always seems to happen” late in the season, or Caitlin Clark, for whom he could offer little more analysis than giving a “shoutout.”
Pierce is effective on his podcast Truth & the Ticket with former Boston Celtics teammate Kevin Garnett, where being a good hang and meandering through hoops talk with the vibe of a smoke sesh works well. But on a daily, two-hour FS1 show during the meat of football season, Pierce is out of his league.
Until it was dissolved this summer, the version of Speak helmed by Acho, Taylor and LeSean McCoy cycled through rotating guest panelists like James Jones, T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Fox’s Dallas Cowboys insider David Helman, the lone such voice during launch week on the new Speak was Michael Irvin, who also found a home on Undisputed after being let go by NFL Network in May. Irvin had previously been suspended and later reinstated over a situation that started with sexual harassment allegations and ended with Irvin settling a lawsuit against Mariott for defamation.
Irvin certainly brings the pizazz and bold opinions FS1 always favors, but Speak gave itself up to him completely during its second hour all week. The Cowboys will always drive attention, but it’s hard to imagine anyone eagerly tuning into FS1 or clicking on a YouTube clip featuring the 58-year-old Irvin in a world in which Ryan Clark, Dan Orlovsky, Kevin Clark and Mina Kimes lead ESPN’s daytime football chatter.
Rather than judge the new Speak subjectively, allow FS1’s hiring decisions to tell us what it thinks of the show. Whereas The Facility features a rejuvenated Acho and lets Chase Daniel diagram plays on-air and Breakfast Ball pits successful radio hosts Craig Carton and Danny Parkins against one another bright and early, Speak now features three flameouts from rival networks around Taylor.
Unless FS1 is simply riding out contracts Bayless gave holdovers Johnson, Pierce and Irvin, it is doing Taylor and its viewers no favors with this hastily thrown-together product.
