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. ==Comparisons to other ESPN talk shows==