Beware the diminishing returns of Skip Bayless

Before last week’s Skip Bayless-Stephen A. Smith reunion on First Take, I wrote a piece about how this was an exercise in anti-nostalgia.

“Everyone remembers that Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless used to yell at one another every morning on ESPN, but no one could tell you anything about what they yelled about,” I wrote. “There are no iconic moments. No memes from that era continue to populate social media platforms or Slack channels. There isn’t a single debate, take, or zinger that has stood the test of time. It was all ephemeral nonsense.”

Not everyone was a fan of that column. And there was some fairness to the criticism that I hadn’t accounted for the demographics of the show’s initial success.

Folks who disagreed with my sentiments got to take a victory lap this week when it was reported that Bayless’s return led to a 44% jump in viewership compared to the comparable episode last year. Per Michael McCarthy in Front Office Sports. Friday’s First Take averaged 647,000 viewers, a 24% increase from the show’s average 2026 viewership.

As soon as the show ended, ESPN not-so-subtly sent out the signal that Bayless will be back. And while I offer them my congratulations on turning his First Take return into a ratings success, I regret to inform them that bringing him back with any regularity is still a big mistake.

ESPN, Smith, and Skip were able to craft a great narrative with the reunion, hyping it up perfectly. But the thing to remember is that, at the end of the day, not a lot of people actually like Skip Bayless. I know, I know, I should have learned my lesson from last time, but anyone who has followed sports media over the past two decades has to admit that, when the pomp and circumstance falls away, audiences remember that they don’t actually enjoy watching Skip, even if he is very good at whatever it is he does.

There’s a reason Undisputed wasn’t a legitimate challenger to First Take. And do you remember Skip’s ratings on FS1 after Shannon Sharpe left the show? Do you know anyone who watched or would admit to having done so? A little bit of Skip Bayless goes a long way in making you wish he’d go away.

The next time he comes back, he won’t have the promotional juggernaut behind him, and the novelty will have worn off. The ratings won’t be as great. And they’ll dip even further in the time after that. Pretty soon, people will start wondering why this 74-year-old keeps showing up to yell about LeBron James before changing the channel (or moving on to the next video).

Bayless built up a lot of goodwill by disappearing from relevance and yelling into the abyss for a few years before ESPN’s reclamation job last week. That’s especially impressive considering he was named in a sexual harassment lawsuit a year ago. It is no surprise to realize this reunion was always going to be the first of many returns. It will also not be a surprise when the bloom falls off that rose in record time.