Skip Bayless says he’ll be ‘completely honest’ on new FS1 show
ESPN's "First Take" show featuring Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith at the Hard Rock Cafe in Manhattan on April 1, 2013. Credit: Uli Seit
Skip Bayless announced in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter posted Monday that his new FS1 show will premiere Sept. 6 and be seen from 10 a.m. to noon.
That will put it head-to-head against Bayless’ old ESPN2 show, “First Take,” on which he has been replaced by Max Kellerman.
Bayless aimed some pointed remarks at ESPN in the interview, suggesting he now can remove the “handcuffs” he felt he wore at that network.
“Too many people in charge at ESPN, for my taste, were a little too fearful,” Bayless told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s a Disney network. There are just certain boundaries that you can’t even tiptoe along. Not that we won’t have boundaries at Fox, because we will. They will trust me to go a little deeper. I can be completely honest on everything.”
Bayess, 64, said, “I say what I say because I believe it from the bottom of my soul and I can back it up. Now I feel like I can be completely honest heart-and-soul with full support from the people above me.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
