Julie Vennitti Botos / USA TODAY NETWORK
Molly Qerim, after 10 years as the host of ESPN’s First Take, announced this week out of nowhere that she would be leaving the show. Her abrupt exit – she hasn’t appeared on the show at all this week and won’t be going forward – shocked many fans as well as those in the sports media.
Qerim had been with ESPN since 2006, covering everything from the UFC and college football to fantasy football and the NBA. In her announcement, Qerim said that hosting First Take was “one of the greatest honors” of her career. Stephen A. Smith said while announcing her departure on Monday’s show that she “elevated the show with her grace, her expertise and her incomparable kindness.”
ESPN president of content Burke Magnus also issued a brief statement on Monday, saying Molly Qerim “elevated the show with her poise, skill and professionalism.” On Thursday, Magnus spoke to The Athletic and shed a little more light on Qerim’s sudden exit from First Take.
“The one thing that was unexpected was the timing of all this,” he said. “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.”
Burke Magnus spoke further about Molly Qerim’s departure in an interview on The Sports Media Podcast that will be released in the coming days. In it, The Athletic reports, Magnus said that ESPN and Qerim were negotiating about roles beyond First Take and that ESPN wanted her to stay with the company when her contract expired at the end of the year.
“We tried to have her do other things and to redo that agreement,” he said. “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.”
He added that Qerim “was going to come off First Take either way,” but her departure was a business decision and she and ESPN “just weren’t totally aligned.”