Shannon Sharpe reportedly leaving Fox’s ‘Undisputed’ after 7 years with Skip Bayless
Skip Bayless is reportedly going to need a new partner.
NFL Hall of Famer-turned-talking head Shannon Sharpe has reached a contract buyout agreement with Fox Sports to end his seven-year run alongside Bayless on Fox Sports 1’s “Skip and Shannon: Undisputed,” according to the New York Post’s Ryan Glasspiegel.
Sharpe’s final show is reportedly expected to be after the NBA Finals end in June. He will also reportedly be taking his “Club Shay Shay” podcast with him from Fox Sports.
The development ends what had been a successful partnership for Fox Sports after it poached Bayless from ESPN’s “First Take’ in 2016 and paired him with Sharpe, previously an NFL commentator for CBS. After years of Bayless verbally sparring with Stephen A. Smith on the highly successful ESPN2 show, Sharpe provided a different voice to counter Bayless in Fox’s own morning debate show.
That partnership saw its highs and lows, though. As the Post noted, there was some very public friction between Sharpe and Bayless in the fallout of the Damar Hamlin incident, in which the Buffalo Bills safety went into cardiac arrest during a game in January and had to be defibrillated on the field, then taken to the hospital.
Like many others, Sharpe was clearly disturbed by the sight of a young man nearly dying on the field. He was also apparently incensed by a widely criticized tweet from Bayless asking if the NFL could really postpone the rest of the “Monday Night Football” game given its timing and stakes.
Sharpe missed the following day’s “Undisputed” episode.
Less than half a year later, it appears Sharpe is on his way out of Fox, while Bayless remains on a four-year, $32 million contract he signed in March 2021. It’s unclear where Sharpe goes from here, though he probably won’t lack for options.
SOOURCE: Yahoo Sports