New 'First Take' host Shae Cornette addresses Molly Qerim's exit for first time

Molly Qerim's next move after her controversial "First Take" departure has us waiting with bated breath, with even small gigs at her alma mater UConn garnering unexpected publicity.

The ESPN personality tapped to replace her is Shae Cornette, the former "SportsCenter" anchor now given the immense pressure to fill Qerim's very fashionable shoes, especially given how it ended for Qerim, 41, and ESPN, with ESPN's president of content, Burke Magnus, pretty much bad-mouthing her out the door with regards to arguably their biggest franchise outside of live sports.

Cornette, 39, addressed replacing Qerim for the first time before starting next Monday as the permanent new host in a New York Post interview.

The veteran sports broadcaster, who has been with ESPN since 2020 after her husband, basketball analyst and former Notre Dame player Jordan Cornette, begged the network to give her a shot, got all the niceties out of the way, saying Qerim was "always so kind and so sweet" after meeting each other several times.

Cornette also compliments Qerim on her "grace," but then we finally get to the money quote.

“There’s a reason this was a coveted job," Cornette said. "And I think it’s because she made it look so eﬀortless. I applaud her for that. I don’t love the term ‘replace’ … This is kind of like a new generation of ‘First Take.’ I’m just going to call it [that]. But that’s not because of anything with her. It’s just something for me. And I hope that her and I cross paths soon.”

A "new generation of 'First Take'" feels like a talking point from ESPN PR, and the line about not loving "replace" is amazing spin.

Shae Cornette, Shae Peppler Cornette — Shae Cornette/Instagram

Cornette is definitely replacing Qerim, and media analysts and viewers will be watching closely in these first couple of months especially.

ESPN's $105 million superstar Stephen A. Smith is clearly the sun of "First Take," which everyone else orbits around, so what matters most is that Cornette builds the same kind of chemistry that Smith and Qerim developed over a decade together.

Everything else is secondary, including the "new generation of 'First Take.'"

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