Significant Growth in Young Men and Overall Viewership

First Take, ESPN’s lively weekday morning debate show featuring Stephen A. Smith, Max Kellerman and host Molly Qerim, is averaging 515,000 viewers per live episode since its move to ESPN (Jan. 3 – 27).

Since moving to ESPN on January 3, the two-hour program has seen a 14% increase in viewership compared to the same time period in 2016 when the show was on ESPN2. The re-air of First Take on ESPN2 draws an average of 179,000 viewers.

In addition, significantly more young men are watching live episodes of First Take, which airs from 10 a.m. – noon ET Monday through Friday, since the move to ESPN. The Men 18-34 demo has increased 41 percent to 134,000 average impressions, while Men 18-49 viewership has also grown double digits – up 12%.

First Take in Houston for Super Bowl LI

The First Take team will travel to Houston for live shows Wednesday, Feb. 1, through Friday, Feb. 3.  Kellerman, Qerim and Smith will be live from Lucky’s Pub Downtown each day. The show will be open to the public and free of charge with doors opening for seating at 7:30 a.m. local CT time.  A variety of guests will join the show, including Pro Football Hall of Famer Dan Marino, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown and Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. The current schedule:

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