ESPN President John Skipper Defends ESPN First Take and Explains
Why the Network Keeps It Around  ESPN President John Skipper
Defends ESPN First Take and Explains Why the Network Keeps It
AroundSteve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports  Do you hate ESPN First
Take? You're not alone. There are a lot of sports fans out
there—some of us at Complex included—who can't stand Skip
Bayless and Stephen A. Smith. But, we've got news for you: It's
not going anywhere. At the Raptors/Knicks game in New York City
on Wednesday night, Newsday caught up with ESPN president John
Skipper and asked him about ESPN First Take. And, he defended it
and talked about why he thinks so many people dislike it.  "My
guess would be that, for people who are critical of it, it's
somewhat symbolic of a general dislike of that genre," he
explained. "For us, it's slightly puzzling, because we're doing
50, 60, 70,000 hours of live TV. We're trying to do a bunch of
different kinds of TV. This kind of TV works, to some extent."
He also acknowledged the rec