"First Take" Moving To ESPN In Effort To Boost Viewership

ESPN will move “First Take” from ESPN2 to ESPN, a move that ESPN execs believe will increase viewership for the nearly 10-year-old franchise.

According to Sports Business Daily, the move to ESPN’s 10:00am-12:00pm ET timeslot starts Jan. 3.

Two hours of “SportsCenter” will replace “First Take” on ESPN2 -- the Hannah Storm interview show “SportsCenter Face to Face” and the David Lloyd-Cari Champion-hosted “SportsCenter Coast to Coast.”

“First Take” has struggled with viewers since Skip Bayless left the show in the summer and was replaced by Max Kellerman. Since Labor Day, when Bayless launched the competing show “Undisputed” on FS1, “First Take” viewership is down 33% compared to the previous year.

ESPN execs said they expected to take a ratings hit when Bayless left -- not because Bayless went to a competitor and launched a competing show. Rather, it was because the biggest faces of ESPN’s “Embrace Debate” strategy -- Bayless and Stephen A. Smith -- were breaking up. It will take a while for Smith, Kellerman and host Molly Qerim to establish the same chemistry.