Y'all like TV sports talk.
Y'all really like TV sports talk.
Many mornings, if I'm near a TV, I'll be flipping back and forth between Fox Sports' "Undisputed" sports talk show with Shannon Sharpe, Skip Bayless and Joy Taylor; and a competing show on ESPN, "First Take," with Stephen A. Smith, Max Kellerman and Molly Qerim.
The talking heads have become nearly as popular as many of the athletes they are talking about. But who is the best?
First a little history:
In 2017, First Take moved from ESPN2 to ESPN and saw a 25 percent increase in average daily viewers, up to 449,000. First Take, which began as Cold Pizza in 2005, enjoyed its highest rated year ever in 2017. And 2018, so far, has been better.
Undisputed began in 2016 when Bayless left First Take to get a reported $5 million annual contract with a $4 million signing bonus at Fox. Previously, Bayless and Smith were good friends and good verbal sparring partners on First Take.
Undisputed earned an average of 131,000 viewers daily in 2017. That was a 45 percent increase over 2016. And it's getting better.
Many of the other daily shows, like Colin Cowherd's, are also enjoying ratings increases. The low cost of producing these shows is probably appealing to TV executives, too.
Sports talk shows are on virtually all day, so there are a lot of familiar hosts. Here's our ranking of the top 5.
5. Max Kellerman, First Take
@maxkellerman (323,000 Twitter followers)
Max Kellerman, who has a history degree from Columbia, comes across as the smartest and most well-prepared of the sports talkers. He's probably least likely to need a fact check. He also gets bonus points from being able to keep his cool while being verbally attacked by Stephen A. Smith, who is known as much for his volume as his arguments. When Kellerman replaced Bayless, many people wondered if a guy who had cut his teeth mostly covering boxing could talk broader sports. Kellerman has proven himself to be very good and unafraid to take on controversial issues.
4. Colin Cowherd, In The Herd
@colincowherd (1.32 million Twitter followers)
Cowherd came to Fox in 2015 and hosts a three-hour show each day beginning at noon. He also works with former Charlotte Observer sportswriter Jason Whitlock on another Fox sports talk show called "Speak For Yourself." A 1985 graduate of Eastern Washington, Cowherd is known for his strong opinions, or Hot Takes, that he uses to kick off each show.
3. Skip Bayless, Undisputed
@realskipbayless (2.44 million Twitter followers)
Bayless has made a career over being the guy who doesn't mind taking an opinion you disagree with. He has consistently criticized LeBron James, calling him the "Frozen One," a play on his "Chosen One" nickname. Bayless, an admitted Cowboy and Spurs fan, has often criticized James' ability to come through with a clutch shot late in games. If this were a poll for the most hated sports talker in the land, Bayless would probably be in the lead.
2. Stephen A. Smith, First Take
@stephenasmith (3.78 million Twitter followers)
Easily the most well-known talker in the genre. How popular is Smith? He's been satirized on Saturday Night Live and his on-air comments, particularly about race and sports, frequently lead to stories in the mainstream media. Smith frequently shows up across ESPN properties, hosting a radio show and frequently appearing on "SportsCenter." He's opinionated, smart and not afraid to have a controversial or unpopular opinion. He's a love-hate guy, but he's hard to not pay attention to.
1. Shannon Sharpe, Undisputed
@shannonsharpe (504,000 Twitter followers)
When Sharpe was announced as the co-host for Bayless, it wasn't exactly met with excitement. But Fox Sports National Network producer Jamie Horowitz, who had helped create and produce "First Take," noticed that when Sharpe stepped in for Smith and worked with Bayless on First Take, the ratings didn't plummet as they sometimes did when Smith was away and other co-hosts stepped in.
Horowitz noted that Sharpe had "it," whatever "it" was. So after he moved to Fox and started working with Bayless' new show, getting Sharpe as a co-host was priority No. 1.
Sharpe was born in Glennville, Ga., and was a seventh round NFL draft pick out of Savannah State, a Division II school. He won two Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos and was inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Sharpe knows football _ he worked with CBS on its NFL broadcasts for 10 years before coming to Fox _ but he's improved his knowledge of other sports by arriving at Fox's Los Angeles studios at 4 a.m. many mornings to study and prepare. And Sharpe's down-home humor and southern drawl have worked well with Bayless. Sharpe comes across as thoughtful, likeable, funny and well-prepared. And he's entertaining as all get out. I've always been a big fan of First Take, but now I find myself always clicking over to Fox Sports after a big sports story breaks.
I want to know, "What is Shannon gonna say?"
And he will say something. Like when the wife of Buffalo Bill kicker Dan Carpenter tweeted that Richard Sherman should be castrated for a hit on her husband during a field goal attempt, Sharpe had a pointed response.
Sharpe didn't back down from expressing his views of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his kneeling protests over police brutality, either.
Almost daily, a clip from the show featuring Sharpe talking about sports, both serious and humorous, is littered across social media. But the ones that come to mind often involve LeBron James, whom Sharpe has taken a huge liking to. It doesn't hurt that Bayless still is harder on James than any other superstar athlete the Fox Sports pair debates about. It often makes for fun TV.
One social media fan added some church music to one of Sharpe's "takes" on James. It has gone _ and stayed viral _ ever since.
