‘We’re Watching the End of Skip Bayless’

Skip Bayless is still over on FS1, churning out hot takes on a daily basis on Undisputed, but things aren’t really going great. None of his new co-hosts have managed to make an impression the way that Shannon Sharpe did before he left for ESPN and ratings are not good. In fact, they’re so bad that Awful Announcing recently said they hit a “pathetic new low.” On Friday’s show, Dan LeBatard proclaimed that we were witnessing the end of Bayless.

“We’re watching the end of Skip Bayless because his numbers, those numbers are so bad, Stugotz. We were doing twice those numbers on ESPN News. Like, he’s coming to the end of his contract and Nick Wright is here to have the money that FOX has to offer. And Colin Cowherd’s going to be able to do whatever he wants with him and his company and Shannon Sharpe and they’re going to compete at the top of the game. The sports media games and the athlete games at the top of the business.”

This was part of a larger conversation about how Stephen A. Smith (along with Bayless) built the sports shouting (That’s a 30 Rock reference, not a Le Batard quote) industry and now Bayless is struggling on FOX while Stephen A. prepares to sign a rich new deal with ESPN.

While their paths diverged long ago, Le Batard says Bayless’ biggest mistake was underestimating how badly he needed Sharpe on Undisputed to be successful. Whatever Bayless thought, it does appear that was the beginning of the end. And now we just wait and watch. Or wait and not watch to be more accurate.