Burke Magnus, ESPN’s president of content, shed light on Molly Qerim’s abrupt exit Monday from “First Take” after hosting the show since 2015.
In an interview with The Athletic released Thursday, Magnus explained that prior to Qerim announcing her departure from the Worldwide Leader, both sides had already determined that she would be taken off of “First Take” when her contract expired at the end of 2025.
Magnus shared they were in renewal conversations with Qerim, who he felt wanted to “explore other things” — and in the end, “we just weren’t totally aligned.”
“Molly Qerim is a wonderful person and an unbelievable teammate and colleague,” Magnus said. “There was a couple dimensions to this. One, is obviously we were in a renewal conversation. Two, is 10 years to do something like that is a long time. I’m not going to speak for her, but I think there was a feeling that she wants to do other things, and successfully being on a top show like that for a decade qualifies as maybe I can turn the page and do something else. We tried to have her do other things and to redo that agreement. It honestly became less about that, and more about, in my opinion, her wanting to do other and explore other things. It ended up being easier for her to make a clean break entirely.
“She was going to come off ‘First Take’ either way and that was something [where] we had already crossed that bridge,” Magnus continued. “So it was from our perspective much more about what else could she be doing, how could we make her more versatile, get her involved in different things? That’s what we were trying to do. I read a lot of stuff on X [on Tuesday]. There’s no controversy here. There’s no shoe that’s going to drop. She’s an awesome person. You know, it’s business. You try your best and we just weren’t totally aligned. I totally respect her interest, in rather than going into a less defined situation, to make a clean break and try to do other things outside of ESPN.”
Magnus made it clear that ESPN wanted Qerim to stay at the company.
Qerim declined comment via her agent when contacted by The Athletic on Tuesday evening.
Magnus said the company will take 30 to 45 days to try out a variety of candidates for the “First Take” hosting role, adding, “I don’t know if it’ll be someone in-house or not.”
Qerim announced her departure from ESPN on her Instagram Story Monday, adding the news “came out earlier than I intended.”
Her post came hours after Sports Business Journal reported that she turned down ESPN’s offer for a new contract and will depart the company at the end of the year.
Magnus spoke further about Qerim’s exit on the “Sports Media Podcast” that will be released in the upcoming days.