Pat McAfee was expected to give ESPN another strong draw on Monday nights. Instead, his first regular-season alt-cast pulled in just 351K viewers, a figure that falls well short of the ManningCast.
“Pat McAfee’s first MNF alt-cast had 351K viewers, according to a source. That is around half of what the Mannings have received,” Andrew Marchand posted on X. “ESPN declined to confirm the McAfee numbers, which is not common practice.”
Pat McAfee’s Field Pass alt-cast debuted with the Washington Commanders-San Francisco 49ers matchup. Announced on October 11, the show was to air on ESPNU, unlike the ManningCast, which airs on ESPN2. The latter show has been a constant since 2021.
The show expanded Pat McAfee’s portfolio, amid what is turning out to be a big year for him. He is also in his first season with Monday Night Football. But the alt-cast doesn’t seem to have sat well with fans. It is a revealing fact, as even ManningCast hasn’t been doing well.
Per Marchand, the ManningCast for Monday’s game between the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams drew only 661,000 viewers, a staggering drop from the Week 1 broadcast, which had more than 700,000 viewers. The Week 1 numbers are only 3% of ESPN’s total audience for the game.
Alarmingly enough, ManningCast never hit the one million mark in viewership last season. Per Awful Announcing, the show averaged 1.1 million weekly in its second season.
The plan was for Field Pass to air during select weeks when the ManningCast is off. However, with both broadcasts down, ESPN looks to be in trouble here with its alt-cast audiences.
ESPN has lined up six regular-season episodes, wrapping up with a Week 18 edition during its Saturday doubleheader. It will also come back for Super Bowl LXI on Feb. 14, 2027.
As for the game on McAfee’s alt-cast, it looked like a blowout early on. The Commanders found themselves down 23-3 but clawed back to make it a tense 23-17 finish. Across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, NFL Network and ESPN Deportes, all of Disney’s networks combined, it drew 17.9 million viewers.
With that context, the Field Pass alt-cast reaching just over half a million viewers is a concerning reality. All this comes at a time when McAfee is making big leaps in his career, reportedly negotiating for a contract that would earn him more than $60 million. ESPN has sung praises of him of late, too.
“He is, he might be a journalist at heart,” ESPN executive Mike Foss said while speaking with Front Office Sports Tuned In summit. “I think what you find is he puts the show together each day and something piques his interest, he’s got the Rolodex. He’s able to navigate waters and has built access that a lot of people don’t have the ability to do. So when he needs to get information, whether it’s on the show or off, he’s able to grab it really quickly.
“I think he’s underrated as an interviewer. I also think it’s interesting; he’s almost like a Rorschach test in terms of what he is. He’s not just a talent. He’s a producer. He’s an interviewer. He’s an actor. I find it fascinating to see what other people’s definitions are of him, because I think it actually says more about them than him.”
McAfee’s alt-cast debuting with only 351,000 viewers shows it still has a long way to go before it matches the pull of the ManningCast.
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The post Pat McAfee’s 1st MNF Alt-Cast Draws Nearly Half of ManningCast Viewership as ESPN Leaves Numbers Out of Release: Report appeared first on EssentiallySports. Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.