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Joy Taylor fired by Fox Sports? Charlie Dixon's sexual battery lawsuit controversy explained
Fox Sports won’t renew Joy Taylor’s contract after nearly a decade, ending her role co‑hosting FS1’s “Speak,” per The Athletic—no official comment yet.
Fox Sports has reportedly decided not to renew the contract of star host Joy Taylor, who rose to prominence co-hosting 'Speak' - a talk show on FS1, the channel's cable arm. The news of Taylor's sacking by the network was reported first by The Athletic citing sources "briefed on the decision." An official confirmation from either Fox Sports or Taylor is still awaited.
As per the sources cited in The Athletic report, Fox Sports decided not to renew Taylor's contract because her shows failed to draw a large audience. Taylor, 38, has been with Fox Sports for over a decade, and her contract, which had expired, and was up for renewal this summer.
On Monday, it was reported that Fox Sports will not go through with the renewal. Along with ‘Speak,’ which she co-hosted with NFL legend Keyshawn Johnson and Paul Pierce, her two other shows, ‘Breakfast Ball’ and ‘The Facility’, have also been cancelled.
However, at the center of the controversy is a sexual battery lawsuit by a former makeup artist at the show against the show's former executive producer, Charlie Dixon. Joy Taylor's involvement in the lawsuit as one of the co-accused has stirred up quite a controversy.
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The make-up artist, Noushin Faraji, had accused Dixon of sexual battery and alleged that when she told Taylor about it, the latter asked Faraji to “to get over it.” While Dixon has been out of the network since April 2025, Taylor continues to deny the allegations. Yet, the controversy has refused to leave her.
Along with Taylor's shows, two other shows have been cancelled by the network: ‘The Herd,’ hosted by Colin Cowherd and First Things First, hosted by Nick Wright, Chris Broussard and Kevin Wildes. Fox is expected to announce new shows for the time slots left empty by the cancelled shows, the report added.
