Joy Taylor made her first public comments about her split from Fox Sports after her FS1 show, Speak, got cancelled earlier this month.
The network additionally decided not to renew Taylor's contract, which was reportedly up this summer.
In the wake of Fox Sports' major daytime shake-up, Taylor shared her candid reaction to her exit from the network on the Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay podcast on Friday.
"It wasn’t entirely surprising," Taylor said. "I’ve been in the business for almost 20 years now, so these things happen. I was caught off guard, but there’s changes with the network every single year. I think the lineup has honestly been different every single year that I’ve been there. I think everyone’s waiting for some big emotional reaction from me, I would assume if anyone follows me at this point [they know] that’s not really my style. [I’m] much more of a slow kill. ... I’m still processing everything that’s happened."
Taylor, who joined Fox Sports in 2016 as a moderator of the now-defunct show, Undisputed featuring Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe, started co-hosting Speak in '22. Prior to the show's cancellation, Speak was one of FS1's longest-running flagship daytime programs.
Taylor also opened up about how she was doing mentally given her turbulent past year in media, offering a brutally honest response on how her career goals have shifted after everything that happened.
“I gotta be honest with you. The f---ed up part about this year, and I don’t know if I’m going to get it back, is the experience this year has taken away my joy for the business," said Taylor.
"The saying, ‘It doesn’t feel like work’ is when you’re doing something that you actually enjoy. I think what happened to me this year took that away from me,” Taylor continued. "I don’t know if I’ll get that back. I might—and maybe like when the callous forms over the wound and you get away from things, it doesn’t feel like the tremors go away, so we’re not there yet—but right now, it doesn’t feel that way. It doesn’t feel exciting. ... Like the dream now is to just disappear."
Taylor added that the recent lawsuit alleging that she helped foster a hostile work environment at Fox Sports had “absolutely nothing to do” with her not getting her contract renewed.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Joy Taylor Makes Candid Comments About Her Future in Media After FS1 Exit.
