As it turns out, Joy Taylor’s absence from Fs1’s Speak this week isn’t a matter of a post-Super Bowl vacation.
According to Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel, Taylor has been “sidelined” from the Fox Sports afternoon show, which is why she hasn’t hosted it these past three days. It’s currently unclear why the 38-year-old host was pulled from the network’s airwaves, with a Fox spokesperson declining comment to FOS.
News of Taylor’s leave comes more than a month after she was named as a defendent in a bombshell workplace misconduct lawsuit filed by a former Fox Sports hairstylist named Noushin Faraji. The lawsuit accuses Taylor of mocking Faraji, who is Persian, based on her ethnicity and having sexual relationships with Fox Sports executive Charlie Dixon and co-host Emmanuel Acho to further her career.
Dixon and former Fox Sports star Skip Bayless are also named as defendants in the lawsuit, accusing them of inappropriate behavior toward the former Fox Sports hairstylist. Bayless left the network last August, while Dixon was placed on leave earlier this month after he was named in another lawsuit from former Fox Sports host Julie Stewart-Binks accusing him of sexual assault.
Despite the accusations against her, Taylor had remained on-air for Fs1 in the aftermath of the lawsuit, including in the days immediately after it was first made public. She was also front and center as Fox took its programming on site in New Orleans ahead of Super Bowl LIX, which the network aired earlier this month.
A spokesperson for Taylor denied the accusations made against her in the lawsuit to The Athletic, while the Speak host filed a motion calling for the lawsuit to be dismissed earlier this month.
“The claims set forth against Ms. Taylor are devoid of merit and appear to have been strategically framed to create unwarranted publicity rather than to seek legitimate redress,” the spokeswoman told the New York Times-owned outlet.
At this point, it’s unclear whether her Taylor’s leave from FS1 airwaves is the result of anything related to the lawsuit or a separate situation that has yet to be made public.
We’ll update this story with more information as it becomes available.
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.