History
The program is hosted by Jay Crawford and features a sports columnist Skip Bayless. Woody Paige, another columnist, was a founding co-host, but left the show before the move to Connecticut to return to his writing duties at the Denver Post. Dana Jacobson, First Take co-host, takes over the segments (and the spin-off show) when Crawford is away.
Guest hosts, in place of either Jacobson or Crawford, have included Josh Elliott, Tom Rinaldi, Michael Kim, Michelle Bonner, Sage Steele and Bayless himself. (On the show Bayless hosted, the brothers who make up the 2 Live Stews, Doug and Ryan Stewart, were on either side of him.)
On May 7, 2007, the program moved to ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut from its previous location in New York City. There have been occasional on-location segments as well.
During the show or segment, Bayless and another panelist discuss and debate ten items of significant sports news daily, with the full program ultimately divided into four segments, termed, as in American football, whence comes also the program's title, downs. Viewer e-mail is often read at the beginning of each segment and incorporated into discussion.
Crawford joined ESPN as co-host of Cold Pizza in 2003 having previously served as director of sports programming at WFTS-TV in Tampa, Florida. Paige, having frequently been a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn while on the staff of the Denver Post, for which he had worked for more than thirty years, left the Post in 2004 to become a full-time employee of ESPN; however, he left the show on November 28, 2006 to return to the Post. Bayless, formerly a columnist for the Dallas Morning News, Miami Herald, and San Jose Mercury News, also left print journalism to join ESPN in 2004.
Since Paige left the show in December 2006 to return to Denver, Colorado, Bayless has been joined by a different guest panelist, whose run on the show has usually lasted for a week. The change affects both the main and spin-off programs. When the move to Bristol was originally announced, Bayless was no longer to be a regular on the show. Instead, he was to be part of a rotating group that will also include Patrick McEnroe, Stephen A. Smith, and Jemele Hill. However, Bayless has continued to be on the show every day since the move (except for vacation periods), and the basic format has not changed.
On August 11, 2008, the show moved to ESPN2 because ESPN unveiled its new live SportsCenter block in the mid-morning and afternoon.
In August 2011, parent show First Take underwent a drastic format change. Gone were the 1st and 10 segments, replaced with a more pronounced role for Skip Bayless. The show greatly increased the amount of debate segments, dropping the 1st and 10 name altogether and using the First Take name throughout.
In August 2011, ESPN rolled out a 1st and 10 podcast, featuring all of the debate topics condensed into a downloadable audio file. On September 13, 2011, the podcast was renamed the First Take podcast, effectively rendering 1st and 10 defunct.
Read more about this topic: 1st And 10 (ESPN TV Series)
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