Joy Taylor Explains Working With Each Of Her FS1 Co-Stars
“On this week’s edition of the All The Smoke podcast with NBA veterans Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Taylor was the guest and talked about her career journey. The FS1 host said that being able to do shows on-the road with Skip Baylees and Shannon Sharpe helped her develop in the business as she went from working at 790 AM The Ticket In Miami to where she is today.”
Since 2016, one of the faces that viewers have seen on FS1 as part of the morning/early afternoon lineup has been on Joy Taylor. During these last five years, she has been the moderator of Skip and Shannon: Undisputed and been a part of The HERD with Colin Cowherd.
On this week’s edition of the All The Smoke podcast with NBA veterans Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Taylor was the guest and talked about her career journey. The FS1 host said that being able to do shows on-the road with Skip Baylees and Shannon Sharpe helped her develop in the business as she went from working at 790 AM The Ticket In Miami to where she is today.
“FOX has been great. It’s been a huge platform for me,” said Taylor. “I hadn’t done live national television. Working with Skip and Shannon was unbelievable. If you know Skip and Shannon, you know that’s an intense show to do.”
She understands that people think the opinions that Bayless and Sharpe give aren’t real takes, but that’s far from the truth and yes, they can agree on things.
“It’s just a well-produced show. They do topics they agree on sometimes because they have to do the topic, but they are going to come from their angle and that’s what makes the debate. It’s a question and then they naturally have other opinions.”
While she enjoyed working with Bayless and Sharpe, Taylor told Barnes and Jackson that she originally wanted to be an opinionist when she went to FS1. Taylor did do some fill-in work for Kristine Leahy while Leahy was Colin Cowherd’s sidekick, and when Leahy left The HERD, Taylor was able to fill in and make an easy transition to the show.
Taylor revealed on the podcast that she doesn’t deem a show to be successful solely on the ratings because she doesn’t worry about that. Instead, it’s all about the conversation that her and Cowherd have:
“If I feel like Colin was activated, that he has thought of something different or thinks about something different than the way he thought about it before doing the show, if we had good guests and the energy is flowing, that’s a good show for me.”
The key for Cowherd to doing a successful show, according to Taylor, is that he always wants to be prepared, which is why the daily show meetings can last two hours:
“We are going over every single topic, every single angle, all of the producers are weighing in, I’m weighing in, Colin is weighing in. It’s a completely different process to prep for the show. They are two different shows. He just preps so much. He doesn’t like having space where he is just rambling. He hates that.”
Joy Taylor called Shannon Sharpe one of the “biggest stars in sports media.” She says it is because the Hall of Fame knows not to take himself too seriously. As for Bayless, Taylor thinks that people don’t have a good understanding of who he is.
“A lot of people think Skip is very hard and mean. He’s a passionate person, so I think he’s misunderstood. They do a show where they give their opinion. Some people are going to like your opinion, some aren’t. I’ve seen Skip on the road. Don’t get it twisted. People love Skip and Skip loves the people. Skip is going to stand there after every show, shake everybody’s hand, take a picture with whoever is there, talk to them for as long as they want to talk to him. He understands the importance of people giving their time to us to watch the show.”
Ricky Keeler is a reporter for BSM with a primary focus on sports media podcasts and national personalities. He is also an active podcaster with an interest in pursuing a career in sports media. You can find him on Twitter @Rickinator555 or reach him by email at RickJKeeler@gmail.com.
CBS Sports is preparing for coverage of its 68th consecutive year of The Masters, but the 2023 event could prove to be unlike any before it, and CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus is cognizant of the situation.
After several former Masters champions departed the PGA Tour for the upstart LIV Golf, many pondered what that meant for the sport’s major championships. The Masters decided to continue to allow the golfers who are now playing exclusively with the Saudi-backed league to compete for the green jacket. McManus shared that CBS will continue the showcase the golfers as it always has.
“We’re not gonna cover up or hide anything,” McManus said, as reported by Golf Digest. “As I’ve said so often, our job is to cover the golf tournament. We’re not gonna show any different treatment for the golfers who have played on the LIV tour than we do the other golfers. And if there’s a pertinent point or something that we need to, or we feel that we should bring up in our coverage on Saturday and Sunday, or on our other coverage throughout the week, you know, we’re not gonna put our heads in the sand.
“Having said that, unless it really affects the story that’s taking place on the golf course, we’re not gonna go out of our way to cover it. I’m not sure there’s anything that we could add to the story as it already exists. We’ll cover it as, as is suitable.”
Amazon will have to wait for flex scheduling. NFL owners decided to table a proposal that would allow the league to create more compelling matchups for Thursday Night Football later in the season.
That doesn’t mean flex scheduling won’t be a reality on Thursday nights this season. The owners have simply decided to wait until May to make their decision.
Earlier this week, Peter King of NBC Sports reported that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is pushing the idea. Coaches have been outspoken about how much they dislike it, complaining about managing injuries and the competitive disadvantage that would come with finding out you suddenly have a shorter week of preparation than expected. According to King, Goodell is trying to make Amazon happy after the first season of Thursday Night Football failed to deliver projected audience numbers for Prime Video.
League owners did take a step they hope will lead to fewer games between losing teams. Last season, teams could only be scheduled once for a Thursday night game. The owners decided to bump that limit up to twice per season.
Goodell defended the proposal against accusations that the league is prioritizing revenue over player safety.
“We always look at the data with respect to injuries,” he told the media gathered at the league meetings. “That is what drove our decisions throughout the first 12 or so years of Thursday Night Football and how it’s evolved. I think the data was very clear: it doesn’t show a higher injury rate. But we recognize shorter weeks. We went through this with COVID, too.”
When the idea of flex scheduling is revisited in May, it will require the support of 24 team owners in order to become a reality.
Derek Jeter is going to work a very limited schedule for FOX next season. Still, before he came on board, FOX Sports CEO Eric Shanks wanted the support of Jeter’s former Yankees teammate and on-again/off-again friend Alex Rodriguez.
Andrew Marchand is reporting that Shanks reached out to ARod personally. Rodriguez gave his approval to the network.
“Why wouldn’t we reach out?” a Fox Sports spokesman said when TheNew York Post reached out for confirmation.
While Derek Jeter is now part of the FOX family, fans shouldn’t expect to see him every time baseball is on the network. He is only scheduled to work “marquee events”. This season, those include the London series, the All-Star Game, and the World Series.
He will be at the desk alongside Kevin Burkhardt, David Ortíz, and Rodriguez.
