ESPN president of content Burke Magnus told The Athletic on Thursday that the company will take 30 to 45 days to try out a variety of people for the “First Take” hosting role that had been filled by Molly Qerim since 2015. He praised Qerim as “an awesome person” and expanded on why the “First Take” host was leaving ESPN’s morning show after 10 years.
“I don’t know if it’ll be someone in-house or not,” Magnus said of the “First Take” host job. “We’re not locked into anything in particular. The one thing that was unexpected was the timing of all this. She [Qerim] put out a statement because there was a report on it, so it kind of got out of our respective controls once that happened. While we knew we were going to make a change — her deal ran through the end of the year — we were more focused on that timeline. So we’re going to take probably about 30 to 45 days to try a variety of in-house people because we can do that on the show. Then we’ll make a decision shortly after that.”
The timeline was accelerated after a report from Sports Business Journal on Monday stated that Qerim was leaving ESPN at the end of the year and that she would not be on the show heading forward. Qerim had worked at ESPN since 2006, first working on digital and mobile platforms.
“After much reflection, I’ve decided it’s time to close this incredible chapter and step away from First Take,” Qerim wrote via a post on her Instagram story on Tuesday, confirming she was leaving. “Hosting this show has been one of the greatest honors of my career. Every morning, I had the privilege of sharing the desk with some of the most brilliant, passionate, and entertaining voices in sports — and with all of you, the best fans in the world. I’m so grateful for what this journey has given me: lifelong friendships, unforgettable memories, and the chance to be part of something truly special. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for welcoming me into your homes.”
Magnus expanded on Qerim’s departure in a long-form interview with the “Sports Media Podcast” that will be published in the upcoming days. He said that ESPN and Qerim were negotiating about roles beyond “First Take.” He made clear that ESPN wanted her to stay at the company, even as Qerim was going to be coming off the show by the end of the year.
Qerim declined comment via her agent when contacted by The Athletic on Tuesday evening.
“Molly Qerim is a wonderful person and an unbelievable teammate and colleague,” Magnus said. “There was a couple dimensions to this. One, is obviously we were in a renewal conversation. Two, is 10 years to do something like that is a long time. I’m not going to speak for her, but I think there was a feeling that she wants to do other things, and successfully being on a top show like that for a decade qualifies as maybe I can turn the page and do something else. We tried to have her do other things and to redo that agreement. It honestly became less about that, and more about, in my opinion, her wanting to do other and explore other things. It ended up being easier for her to make a clean break entirely.
“She was going to come off First Take either way and that was something [where] we had already crossed that bridge,” Magnus continued. “So it was from our perspective much more about what else could she be doing, how could we make her more versatile, get her involved in different things? That’s what we were trying to do. I read a lot of stuff on X [on Tuesday]. There’s no controversy here. There’s no shoe that’s going to drop. She’s an awesome person. You know, it’s business. You try your best and we just weren’t totally aligned. I totally respect her interest, in rather than going into a less defined situation, to make a clean break and try to do other things outside of ESPN.”
(Photo: Rob Kim / Getty Images)
Source link
