Fox Sports ((FOX)) just lost one of its biggest talents -- and it might have trouble finding a replacement.
Shannon Sharpe, host of Fox Sports 1’s ‘Skip and Shannon: Undisputed,’ reached a contract buyout agreement with Fox Sports, the New York Post reported on Wednesday, May 31. He’s expected to finish his tenure with Fox at the conclusion of the NBA Finals sometime in mid June.
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Sharpe, a Pro Football Hall-of-Famer, had been with Fox for seven years and has worked alongside Skip Bayless, the fiery and polarizing sports debater who is one of the pioneers of the space.
However, the relationship between the two seems to be a reason for Sharpe’s sudden departure and Sharpe left a Twitter trace as evidence.
After the reports were announced that Sharpe would be leaving Fox, he liked two tweets indicating a rift with his ex-partner.
The first from @DylanPatrickH1 said that the relationship between the two got “progressively worse” and that “Skip couldn’t stand Shannon succeeding.”
This may allude to the fact that Shannon was growing an audience on his own, particularly through his ‘Club Shay Shay’ podcast that has amassed nearly 1.2 million subscribers on YouTube. That show will also be leaving Fox Sports.
Sharpe then liked another tweet from use @Matthewjdowd which said that keeping Skip instead of Shannon was like keeping Weird Al Yankovic instead of James Brown.
The co-hosts have butted heads many times on television, naturally, due to the debate format of their show. However, they had a public feud earlier this year due to Bayless’ tweet following the collapse of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin during a Week 17 NFL game.
Sharpe skipped the show the day following the incident and tweet, then clashed with Bayless on live television when he returned.
However, hiring a replacement may be an issue as sources told Front Office Sports that Bayless has "final say" on his next partner and that he will not want to hire someone "who challenges him."
