Dan Le Batard is commenting on the top personalities in sports debate television once again.
Two weeks after Le Batard asserted that Stephen A. Smith is trying to end the career of Skip Bayless, Le Batard spoke on "The Dan Le Batard Show" on Oct. 11 saying that he has continued to be interested in the "elder statesmen" of the industry. Le Batard commented in particular about Smith and how the highly-criticized move of 'First Take' to drop Max Kellerman is reaping viewership benefits for Smith and his show.
"Stephen A. has spent two years defending his decision in various places — or maybe 18 months — to not have Max Kellerman on that show because he wanted to do a different show, and he's being rewarded with it with numbers that you don't generally see on television these days," Le Batard said.
Related: Stephen A. Smith posts fiery response to Dan Le Batard, says he's tired of the 'whining'
Le Batard is alluding to the massive success of 'First Take's' ratings over the last few months, including averaging 852,000 viewers during the Monday, Oct. 9 show. That was the show's second-highest viewership number this year, behind only the Jan. 2 show after Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field.
The show has seen 14 consecutive months of year-over-year viewership growth.
"It's been fascinating to watch as his power has grown there, him being able to take what he's already the number one show there and turn it into his personal commercial for his brand and things that he is building outside of ESPN."
Le Batard also walked back his previous claim about Smith wanting to end Bayless' career, which Smith profusely denied on his own show by saying that he simply wants to beat everyone else.
"I don't think [Smith] dislikes Skip," Le Batard said. "He says he doesn't want to end anyone's career, that he wants everybody to be able to make money at this trough but he wants to make more of it. He wants to win more and at the moment there can be no disputing that he is winning more because everyone is losing numbers," Le Batard said.
But one noteworthy talking point from Le Batard is that while Smith is able to grow ESPN's audience, he's also building his total brand outside of ESPN by leveraging the large platform of ESPN.
"When ESPN is in the middle of layoffs, [Smith's] telling you 'I can be next.' And then you watch on ESPN the scroll for a daily infomercial him telling you, 'And you can catch me over here on 'The Stephen A. Smith Show' on YouTube' where I have my own production company ... He's clearly building a safety net right in front of your eyes, like it's clear that unemotionally, rationally, he's protecting the business and the brand of Steven A. Smith in the event he gets let go by ESPN," Le Batard said.
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