Since 2016, Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless had been entertaining the NFL fans with their interesting debates on the trending sports topic, however, the glorious era is coming to an end as Sharpe and Fox Sports reportedly have reached a buyout agreement to mark an end to his journey with the “Undisputed” show.
The Hall of Fame’s final show is expected to be aired after the 2023 NBA Finals end in June as well as his “Club Shay Shay” podcast will conclude its partnership with Fox Sports.
Why is Shannon Sharpe leaving ‘Undisputed’?
The decision of Sharpe to leave FS1 couldn’t be a surprising move for any fans as the tension between him and his co-host had been quite visible.
The tension had its first blow when Skip made a controversial tweet regarding the Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s collapse on the field against the Cincinnati Bengals, criticizing the potential decision of the NFL to postpone the match before the official announcement of the postponement eventually came.
The tweet turned into a controversy and Sharpe stayed at home the following morning, however, the 71-year-old analyst said after his next appearance that he wished his fellow analyst would delete the tweet but nothing like that happened.
Besides this, Bayless is reportedly earning twice from the company as the three-time Super Bowl winner and he also had complaints regarding not getting equal opportunity to decide on a topic as disclosed by Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post “unquestioned leader on the show, but wanted to be an equal with Bayless in the program’s topic selection.”
Ryan also mentioned the NBA icon LeBron James as another reason for the veteran host to leave the show as he doesn’t like hearing criticism of LeBron, however, Skip is a huge critic of the NBA star.
“Another element that seemed to bleed over between the two was that Sharpe is close with LeBron James, while Bayless has been a hard grader of James’ performance over the years.
Though the ex-NFL player officially didn’t announce the breakup news, he liked several posts about his rumored departure from the show on Twitter.
Ex-NFL six-time Pro bowler possible candidate to replace Sharpe
The Front Office Sports’ Michael McCarthy reported Bayless can be seen with the former NFL running back LeSean McCoy on the show in the upcoming episodes.
After putting an end to his 12-year NFL journey with four teams, the six-time Pro Bowler joined FS1 in September 2022 as a co-host of FS1’s “SPEAK”.
BREAKING: 6x Pro Bowl #NFL running back LeSean McCoy is emerging as an early possible contender to succeed Shannon Sharpe as Skip Bayless’ debate partner on “Undisputed,” per @MMcCarthyREV:
The former #NFL star turned co-host of FS1’s “SPEAK” is expected to have an extended… pic.twitter.com/JkENxMx3E9
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) June 6, 2023
However, many netizens have already started showing their outrage over the potential deal saying Shannon was the star of the show.
We'll I'm done watching Undisputed Once @ShannonSharpe leaves so do I.. Good luck getting people to watch that show if he is the replacement….I only watch for @ShannonSharpe pic.twitter.com/hykrPrcVYJ
— Jamara Hudson (@jamara23732) June 6, 2023
Some netizens projected the show to be turned into the worst show after the potential acquisition.
This would be in contention as the worst sports talk show in the history of cable television
— 🅿️nuts (@tnuts_) June 6, 2023
Really trying to make the 2 worst come together
— yalls.eth (@OhNathan) June 6, 2023
No offense but that's a big downgrade. Shannon had the charisma that's hard to replace
— Sam (@thewolfofy) June 6, 2023
Only time will tell who will ultimately claim the coveted spot alongside Bayless on ‘Undisputed’, albeit replacing the former Denver Broncos’ legacy as an analyst isn’t going to be a piece of cake.
