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Will Skip Bayless Help Fox Sports Close Gap with ESPN?

Skip Bayless Fox Sports

Skip Bayless and ESPN have announced that they will be parting ways after the NBA Finals and there are reports circulating about Skip’s next landing spot.

According to an industry source, Bayless is expected to join Fox Sports. New Fox Sports head honcho Jamie Horowitz—who worked with Bayless at First Take while at ESPN and is generally credited/blamed for the network’s embarrassing “Embrace Debate” era—has been clear about his desire to remake Fox Sports as a sort of giant crypto-racist shout show, and Bayless is the biggest name in that game. “Yes, we’re interested in all the superstars,” Horowitz told Sporting News last month. “Of course, I’m interested in Skip.” – DeadSpin

Fox Sports has shown that they are willing to pay the big bucks to lure in top talent. They have welcomed Colin Cowherd and Jason Whitlock from ESPN and Bayless may just be the latest.

ESPN is rumored to have offered Skip $4 million a year to re-sign, which mean Fox Sports put up huge money to take him away from his comfort zone.

Bringing in established characters seems smart on paper but there’s no guarantee that their audience travels with them. Expecting Skip Bayless to step into the morning/afternoon talk show role and instantly double the viewership is unrealistic. Rarely do lightning strike twice and in this case it almost never strikes three times.

Skip and Woody Page made ESPN’s Cold Pizza a huge success and when Woody moved on Skip took some time to adjust. That led to his pairing with Stephen A. Smith on First Take and the creation of sports’ most popular talk show.

Can he build that same chemistry with a Cowherd or Whitlock? Possibly, but it’s more likely that he never reaches the success he had at ESPN. It’s similar to the Angels signing Albert Pujols to a long-term contract after he had given his all to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Is he still great, sure, but he still needs other stars around him to succeed and if you still have to place young superstars around him to make it work was he really worth the money after all?

Fox Sports is banking on Skip not only building a successful show but also a platform for them to create new stars. It’s a new role for Skip and one he may find harder than anything he had to do at ESPN.

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