One-half of ESPN’s most popular show, First Take, is reportedly axing Max Kellerman from the show where he and Stephen A Smith trade hot takes on the latest sports news.
However, according to Front Office Sports, this isn’t the end of Kellerman at ESPN as rumor has it; Max will see an increased role on ESPN Radio and potentially have his own TV show. He already does a boxing-focused program.
ESPN doesn’t have a clear replacement in mind, but we can expect a rotation of sparring partners for SAS, mainly coming from another ESPN show, “Get Up,” which airs from the same seaport location in NYC. Molly Qeirm is still expected to host.
This could be either one of two things, Kellerman either grew less interested in debating Stephen A Smith for three hours as there are times you can clearly see Kellermans disinterest or two, Stephen A Smith wants all the shine and ESPN instead of just getting rid of Max, they will use him in a different capacity.
If we are going, to be honest, especially lately, it didn’t appear that Max was enjoying his time on First Take. Also, ESPN rarely promoted his takes. It was always about making Stephen A. go viral by any means necessary. Hopefully, Kellerman will be used more on the boxing side beyond just his MAX ON BOXING show which is routinely bumped out of its time slot.
ESPN tried to lure back Skip Bayless, and that is when you knew the writing was on the wild for Max. Don’t be shocked if Kendrick Perkins at some point becomes the permanent replacement. He has terrible but viral takes, and that is what they want on First Take.
We just have to wait until the news is official and who will be the permanent replacement for Kellerman…if there ever will be one.
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