ESPN is going to hold a tryout period before settling on a new host for “First Take.”

Burke Magnus, the network’s president of content, told The Athletic on Thursday that there will be a 30-to-45-day period where several people will host the show that stars Stephen A. Smith in the wake of host Molly Qerim’s resignation , and that her eventual replacement may not be currently employed by ESPN.

“I don’t know if it’ll be someone in-house or not,” Magnus said. “The one thing that was unexpected was the timing of all this. [Qerim] put out a statement because there was a report on it, so it kind of got out of our respective controls once that happened. While we knew we were going to make a change — her deal ran through the end of the year — we were more focused on that timeline. So we’re

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