Published October 22, 2026 10:18 AM
When ESPN announced that it would produce a Pat McAfee-led alt cast during the Monday night games that don’t feature a ManningCast, I sensed trouble on the horizon.
The McAfee production, I believed, would consistently outperform the Manning show, creating awkwardness within the Disney family.
A different kind of awkwardness has emerged. The first edition of the McAfee alt cast was outperformed during the same window by a Next Gen Stats alt cast on NFL Network.
Via Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, the McAfee alt cast on ESPN2 generated 351,000 viewers. The Next Gen Stats edition on NFL Network drew 469,000.
Even with the ManningCast numbers gradually and consistently dropping, it has never dipped to 500,000. At one point, when it was new and fresh (and when the main booth didn’t include Joe Buck and Troy Aikman), the ManningCast consistently exceeded one million viewers per game.
As Karp notes, ESPN plans five more McAfee alt casts during the regular season. The next one is set for Bills-Vikings in Week 9. For the Super Bowl, the ManningCast will happen on ESPN2 and the McAfee alt cast will be televised by ESPNU.
Again, unless an alt cast is bringing in people who would otherwise not watch the game, it’s a waste of money. The ManningCast has largely been a prestige play, with critics loving it — even if most fans don’t want to essentially listen to a podcast while watching a football game. Also, it’s a way to get Peyton and Eli on the air together.
McAfee is already ubiquitous for Bristol. The lack of the expected response to a McAfee alt cast could, frankly, be an indication that (after three hours of McAfee on College GameDay and three hours of the Monday of McAfee’s show and two hours of McAfee on Monday Night Countdown) his core audience has reached a saturation point by the time the game begins.