Fox Sports 1
Just days after it was reported that former NFL cornerback and Super Bowl champion Richard Sherman would be replacing Shannon Sharpe on Fox Sports 1’s Undisputed, further reports indicate that Rachel Nichols is also set to join the crew.
According to the Sports Business Journal, Nichols will make her debut as a “regular panelist” on the August 28th episode of the show. In addition to Nicholas, Sherman and rapper Lil Wayne will also appear.
Additionally, the report from Sports Business Journal states that Fox Sports 1 executives are also debating adding former NFL wide receivers Michael Irvin or Keyshawn Johnson to the rotating cast of characters opposite Skip Bayless. Johnson was among the major on-air talents laid off by ESPN earlier this summer.
Sherman will be appearing on the show 50-100 times per year, mainly during the NFL season, while Bayless said that Wayne would be appearing on the show on Fridays.
The network plans to add a well-known NBA-focused analyst as that league’s season gets underway, sources said.
Nichols has appeared on a Showtime series called Headliners that launched last spring. She will appear on an interview show called The Rachel Nichols Project on Monumental Sports Network. [via Sports Business Journal]
Nichols, of course, left ESPN back in 2021 after a private phone call in which she complained that ESPN chose Maria Taylor to host NBA Countdown over her was leaked. Coincidentally, Taylor isn’t at ESPN anymore either and is now working for NBC Sports.
Fox Sport 1’s Undisputed first launched back in 2016 after Bayless, who had previously hosted First Take alongside Stephen A. Smith, made the jump from ESPN to Fox.
Bayless, now 71 years old, is a former Dallas Morning News and Chicago Tribune sportswriter, author, and radio host that was hired as a full-time employee by ESPN in 2004 to host daily debate segments called “1st and 10” on the ESPN2 morning show Cold Pizza — which is what eventually would become First Take in 2007.