{"id":72373,"date":"2025-09-18T23:46:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T23:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/72373\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T23:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T23:46:08","slug":"how-espn-will-decide-molly-qerims-first-take-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/72373\/","title":{"rendered":"How ESPN will decide Molly Qerim’s ‘First Take’ replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESPN is going to hold a tryout period before settling on a new host for \u201cFirst Take.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burke Magnus, the network\u2019s president of content, told The Athletic<\/a> on Thursday that there will be a 30-to-45-day period where several people will host the show<\/a> that stars Stephen A. Smith in the wake of host Molly Qerim\u2019s resignation<\/a>, and that her eventual replacement may not be currently employed by ESPN.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019ll be someone in-house or not,\u201d Magnus said. \u201cThe one thing that was unexpected was the timing of all this. [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 \u2014 her deal ran through the end of the year \u2014 we were more focused on that timeline. So we\u2019re 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\u2019ll make a decision shortly after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Qerim, who had hosted \u201cFirst Take\u201d since 2015 and was on Monday\u2019s episode, announced on her Instagram Story that night that she was leaving the show after Sports Business Journal broke the news that she would be departing the network by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Stephen A. Smith (l.) and Molly Qerim (r.) Getty Images for Fanatics<\/p>\n

Magnus told The Athletic that Qerim and the network were negotiating about roles beyond \u201cFirst Take\u201d<\/a> and ESPN wanted her to stay.<\/p>\n

Qerim noted at the beginning of her post that the news \u201ccame out earlier than I intended, and not in the way I hoped.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Molly Qerim Getty Images for GQ<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter much reflection, I\u2019ve decided it\u2019s time to close this incredible chapter and step away from First Take,\u201d Qerim said. \u201cHosting 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 \u2014 and with all of you, the best fans in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so grateful for what this journey has given me: lifelong friendships, unforgettable memories, and the chance to be part of something truly special. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the bottom of my heart, thank you for welcoming me into your homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magnus said Qerim was going to come off of \u201cFirst Take\u201d no matter what, but the two sides \u201cjust weren\u2019t totally aligned\u201d on what her role would be.<\/p>\n

Burke Magnus Variety via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cMolly Qerim is a wonderful person and an unbelievable teammate and colleague,\u201d Magnus told The Athletic. \u201cThere 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\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith stepped in to host on Tuesday and will host through the end of the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN is going to hold a tryout period before settling on a new host for \u201cFirst Take.\u201d Burke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,13499,19,17,49644,132,49643,49645,11577,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-72373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-molly-qerim","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-sports-entertainment","16":"tag-sports-media","17":"tag-stephen-a-smith","18":"tag-tv"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}