Why is Molly Qerim leaving First Take? Chris “Mad Dog” Russo believes the former host left ESPN before her contract expired

Chris "Mad Dog" Russo has weighed in on Molly Qerim's shocking departure from ESPN's First Take.

In a new video going viral on social media, Russo can be seen discussing with Jimmy Traina on the latter's SI Media podcast why he thinks Qerim quit the show. He said that she quit ESPN before her contract expireed because she viewed a potential shift to SportsCenter as a demotion.

Russo admitted he was "shocked" to learn of Molly Qerim's abrupt departure last month, adding that she didn't want to finish out as a "lame duck." He also “assumed” she felt “embarrassed” about her departure.

“I think she precipitated it. … I think, probably, she felt embarrassed,” Russo, who’s a regular analyst on “First Take,” said. “I didn’t talk to her about the specifics of why she decided as soon as it was in the Sports Business Journal, but that’s what I’m thinking — that she probably would have felt embarrassed if the world would have thought that she was a lame duck and she was still doing the show. So, that I think that probably had a little something to do with it.”

The reasons behind Molly Qerim's shocking departure from ESPN explored:

During his podcast appearance this week, Russo shared that he was “very surprised” when Stephen A. Smith called him to tell him about Molly Qerim's departure “on the night before” her exit.

“I did not speak to Molly prior. I’ve had sone conversation with her since. She was on air a long time. I think they probably wanted to move her around a little bit and try something different,” Russo said. “Not that the ratings were bad, it’s just the nature of the beast. You’re on air forever, they like to make a change for making a change’s sake. I think they wanted to keep Molly with the network, and I don’t know if Molly wanted to do that. Because I think Molly probably looked at as, ‘If I’m not going to do ‘First Take,’ I don’t want to do ‘SportsCenter.’ So she probably felt that that would be a demotion, I would assume.”

He also said that Molly Qerim was essential to the success of the show, describing her and Smith’s relationship as “a big brother, little sister deal.”

“I did not know that was occurring. I was shocked — I went to work on Wednesday [and] they had scrubbed her off all the promos and they’re mad about stuff … she was off,” Russo said. “It tells you the quickness of television. If you’re gone, they get you out in 10 minutes.”

Molly Qerim had been serving as a host on the ESPN show for a decade, though she had been working at the network since 2005. She announced her decision to quit on Instagram last month, noting that the news leaked out "earlier than I intended.”

She was referring to a report from Sports Business Journal, which stated that she rejected a new contractual offer from ESPN and would be leaving the company at the end of the year.

Marca has reported that ESPN is allegedly on the lookout for a younger host with lesser salary demands. Auditions for the role of host are reportedly underway, with the selection process expected to span between 35 and 40 days.

The Daily Mail has reported that, just weeks ago, former ESPN star Marcellus Wiley alleged that Molly Qerim quit because she was unhappy with her $500k annual salary, as Stephen was earning about 40 times as much.

Wiley, who served as co-host alongside Qerim on SportsNation, claimed that his colleague felt "disrespected" by her salary as news broke out that Smith signed a fresh $20 million annual contract. Her fellow colleagues on the network, such as Malika Andrews and Mina Kimes, are all reportedly making seven figures, causing Qerim further distress.

During a segment of his Dat Dude TV podcast, Wiley said that Molly Qerim

"wasn’t getting what she wanted' and that she was earning 'around half a million dollars a year." Adding that she wasnted to host other shows, including her own, he said: "That wasn’t happening. They weren’t signing off on her doing her own show or any other show at the network. 'Molly finally woke up and said enough is enough."

During an interview with The Athletic, he touted Molly Qerim's desire to pursue "other things" as the reason behind her departure:

'Molly Qerim is a wonderful person and an unbelievable teammate and colleague,' he insisted. 'There was a couple dimensions to this. One, is obviously we were in a renewal conversation. Two, is 10 years to do something like that is a long time. I’m not going to speak for her, but I think there was a feeling that she wants to do other things, and successfully being on a top show like that for a decade qualifies as maybe I can turn the page and do something else. We tried to have her do other things and to redo that agreement. It honestly became less about that, and more about, in my opinion, her wanting to do other and explore other things. It ended up being easier for her to make a clean break entirely.'

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