(Joe Faraoni/ESPN Images)
Beginning this week, various celebrity guests and athletes will be sharing the First Take desk with Skip Bayless, Stephen A. Smith and Cari Champion every Wednesday. Front Row caught up with Coordinating Producer Antoine Lewis to find out where the idea came from and who we can expect on “Who We Got Wednesdays.”
How did the idea of “Who We Got Wednesdays” come about?
We have many stars reaching out to us who are fans of the show. People from Snoop Dogg/Lion to Regis Philbin say we are part of their daily routine. Stop and ponder that range and spectrum. Both rappers and television icons are watching and yelling at the television while the show is on. Our team has been impressed by the passion of our live guests and it gives us a charge to have them in studio, so we were looking for a way to put our celebrity fans in the spotlight each week. More important was the goal to make it fun for our viewers and create anticipation to see who will be on the show next. So we came up with “Who We Got Wednesdays.” Why Wednesday? It fit nicely with the alliteration of the title!
Will these guests be debating Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith?
It would be hard not to have the guests jump in on the debate. They are eager to take on the guys in a verbal MMA match. The beauty of the show is there are several ways to look at the issues and everyone becomes an expert. But Skip and Stephen A. are guided by a very basic concept: They want to win the debate. This is something guests are immediately drawn to as they bring their best debate points and fall in line with the Skip or Stephen A. point of view.
Who can we look forward to seeing in the coming “Who We Got Wednesdays”?
We’re looking at names like Mike Tyson, Zac Efron and Martin Lawrence. We are also spanning the musical gamut and working on old school flavor like Ed Lover [see below], Pete Rock and Hammer along with new school guys like Pitbull and 2 Chainz. But we are a sports show at our core so you can expect us to have some high profile sports guests coming through as well.
If First Take could have any guest on, who would it be?
The crew unanimously wants to sit down with Lebron or Jay-Z. But Justin Bieber is not far behind on the wish list. Also, we know it is a long shot, but we would like to debate with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. Lady Gaga has been spotted at Giants games…So I would like to get her on to debate. It would be even better if she did it with raw meat on her head the whole time. That’s when First Take would have people doing a double take.
Tomorrow’s “Who We Got Wednesday” guest on First Take will be the aforementioned actor/musican Ed Lover. First Take airs weekdays at 10 am ET on ESPN2.
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