A Jewish deli in Beverly Hills set the stage for a reunion worthy of a double take.
ESPN and Sirius XM behemoth Stephen A. Smith caught up with former “First Take” co-star Skip Bayless at Nate’n Al’s deli on Saturday night.
Social media user George “Riley” Panagakis posted a selfie with the pair on X, capturing them sitting in a booth alongside Bayless’ wife, Ernestine.
The photo, which seemed surreal to many viewers, prompted Panagakis to emphasize its legitimacy, later posting, “Please don’t say anything stupid like this is AI, I’m not smart enough to use it!”
For a duo that used to clash daily on national television, meet-ups between Smith and Bayless have become sparse — though they have slowly picked up in the last year.
Smith made a guest appearance on Bayless’ podcast in March, marking their first show together since 2016, when the latter departed ESPN for FS1.
It was a bold decision for Smith, as Bayless was then entangled in sexual misconduct allegations emanating from a lawsuit filed by a former FS1 hairdresser, following his departure from the platform in summer 2024.
The suit was settled in September.
Smith continued to show support for his embattled co-star, who is now affiliated with Underdog.
Just last week, he offered an on-air apology to Bayless for not giving him enough credit, applauding him for fueling the success of “First Take” and championing diversity at ESPN.
“When it comes to Skip Bayless, something that never gets said to him or about him is about to be said now,” Smith said on a recent episode of his SiriusXM show. “That man is owed an apology. From me. That’s my guy. And in the midst of talking about Cari Champion, and in the midst of talking about Jemele Hill and some of the things Jemele Hill alluded to, I was so busy clapping back for a damn change and defending myself that I dropped the ball. I neglected to do what I always do, which was give the true credit where it’s due. And that’s to that man, Skip Bayless.”
“When ‘Cold Pizza’ was rebranded as ‘First Take’ in 2007 and Skip was sitting across from people debating,” Smith continued. “Jemele Hill was one of those people. Michael Smith was one of those people, the ‘2 Live Stews,’ Chris Broussard was one of those people. Rob Parker was one of those people…let’s be very, very clear, diversity was always important to Skip.”
That level of praise — let alone a friendly meet up for dinner — would have seemed impossible just 12 months ago.
The pair remained amicable enough in the years following Bayless’ departure from the show, with them even pushing for a TV reunion at ESPN in 2020, Bayless later revealed.
However, things recently took a turn for the worse, at least according to Smith, who stressed last December that he would no longer pick up the phone if his former partner reached out.
“I got a lot of people over the last year or two that have really, really pissed me off I’m picking up the phone if they call,” he said during an appearance on Cam’Ron’s “Talk With Flee” podcast. “There’s only one person that I won’t pick up the phone for, everybody knows who that is,” Smith said, alluding to Bayless.
The sports talk TV trailblazers have seemingly come a long way to putting their complicated past behind them, once again sitting across the table from one another — albeit in a more casual setting.
