ESPN Reveals How They'll Find Molly Qerim's 'First Take' Replacement

The search for Molly Qerim's replacement has begun.

Following the abrupt departure of the longtime First Take host, ESPN is scrambling to replace Qerim and find someone else to sit between Stephen A. Smith and whoever he's disagreeing with on any particular day.

ESPN president of content Burke Magnus told The Athletic in an interview this week that there will be 30-45 days of tryouts before the network decides on a new host. It also sounds like, as Stephen A. Smith said, ESPN was negotiating a new deal with Qerim when the news broke that she would be leaving; a few hours later, she was just gone.

Via The Athletic:

“I don’t know if it’ll be someone in-house or not,” Magnus said of the “First Take” host job. “We’re not locked into anything in particular. The one thing that was unexpected was the timing of all this. She [Qerim] put out a statement because there was a report on it, so it kind of got out of our respective controls once that happened. While we knew we were going to make a change—her deal ran through the end of the year—we were more focused on that timeline. So we’re going to take probably about 30 to 45 days to try a variety of in-house people because we can do that on the show. Then we’ll make a decision shortly after that.”

So if you see someone sitting in Molly Qerim's chair on First Take in the coming days and weeks, assume you're watching an audition. And if you see someone in Stephen A. Smith's chair, assume they're very comfortable.