Stephen A. Smith apologizes on air for First Take technical difficulties and says he ‘won’t tolerate much more of this’

FIRST Take analyst Stephen A. Smith was left in the dark on Labor Day as technical issues kept him off the ESPN broadcast.

The veteran sportscaster could not join the start of Monday’s show alongside host Molly Qerim and co-star Shannon Sharpe .

ESPN/First Take

ESPN/First Take

Smith appeared via video link to discuss last night’s college football showdown between LSU and USC .

However, “technical difficulties” kept the ESPN analyst off-screen for the opening 12 minutes of the broadcast.

Stephen A. eventually overcame his tech issues and immediately said sorry to First Take fans for his enforced absence.

“I apologize to the audience for the technical difficulties,” a visibly frustrated Stephen A. said.

“We are going to get that straight. We ain’t going to tolerate much more of this.”

It’s not the first time that First Take has been blighted by technology in recent weeks .

Last month, Sharpe returned to the show following a lengthy summer vacation.

The NFL Hall of Famer was seen gesturing to producers off-camera as his sound appeared to cut in and out during his first broadcast back.

Earlier in the summer, viewers at home were similarly frustrated as an audio delay caused “carnage” on the sports debate show.

“Remove the mics, put everybody on a dang phone call, this is ridiculous,” fumed one fan on X.

In addition to Stephen A.’s late arrival, Monday’s First Take featured a change to the regular ESPN schedule .

The show was condensed to an hour in its usual slot, allowing live coverage of the US Open at 11 am ET.

Molly and the crew switched over to sister channel ESPN2 for the remainder of the broadcast.

This will be the only change to the schedule for the remainder of the week, with First Take returning to its usual two-hour slot on Tuesday.

First Take viewing figures

First Take went from strength to strength under the guidance of Stephen A. Smith and Molly Qerim last year.

The weekday ESPN debate show averaged 496,000 viewers in 2023 – making it the most-watched year in program history.

Its December average of 611,000 was a 24% year-on-year increase compared to 2022.

The show also reported more than 250 million views on YouTube.

First Take was helped by the addition of Shannon Sharpe alongside Smith and Qerim after he left Fox Sports’ Undisputed.

On Friday’s show, Smith and the gang previewed potential Super Bowl winners ahead of the new NFL season .

And Stephen A. nearly fell off his chair after NFL analyst Mike Tannenbaum picked the Green Bay Packers to win it all.

Smith showed his surprised look as he could be seen mouthing, “What?!”

“They are young and they are deep,” Tannenbaum continued.

“When you talk about a team that’s going to be young at the beginning of the season but get better as the season goes along, I like Detroit and Green Bay in the NFC Championship Game.

“I have Green Bay winning that game, and then I love [Jordan] Love over Mahomes and the Chiefs, winning the Super Bowl.”