To the joy of some, Chris Russo and ESPN appear to be running it back for another year.
Per the New York Post, Russo has a new one-year deal with ESPN, where he’ll continue making appearances on First Take alongside Stephen A. Smith.
Last February, ESPN announced that Russo would co-host First Take every Wednesday, in addition to his daily SiriusXM radio show and his MLB Network show High Heat. Over the summer, Russo revealed ESPN was paying him $10,000 per appearance (a revelation that didn’t please ESPN).
Given that ESPN is doing this for another year, they must be happy with Russo’s on-air partnership with Smith and the viral videos that spring up from their episodes of First Take every Wednesday. I’m actually somewhat surprised the company is showing some restraint and still only bringing Russo on once a week instead of more often.