ESPN may have a bit of a problem on their hands with the “Pat McAfee Show” not delivering the sort of numbers the network expected when they gave him a massive $85 million deal last year.
Despite making huge staff cuts in 2023, the North American leader in sports coverage and content, ESPN, made the bold decision to get into the Pat McAfee business. The former Indianapolis Colts special teams legend has become a media superstar over the last five years as his podcast surprisingly became a huge hit on YouTube.
Related: ESPN in tricky position after Aaron Rodgers, Jimmy Kimmel feud
As the network owned by Disney looked to grab younger viewers they gave the 36-year-old voice of a new generation a massive five-year, $85 million deal to bring the “Pat McAfee Show” to their airwaves and YouTube channel, as well as serve as an analyst for their flagship college football show, “College Gameday.”
However, his unique approach to sports talk is a distinct departure from their traditional content and it got him in some hot water this week. Paid-weekly guest Aaron Rodgers had a foot-in-mouth moment when he suggested late-night host Jimmy Kimmel could be on the recently released friends list of infamous sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Pat McAfee having trouble keeping the audience handed to him by Stephen A. Smith
The moment led to an angry X post from Kimmell and an apology the following day from McAfee. Moments like that bring into question if the popular talk host is worth the trouble. On Thursday, New York Post media insider Andrew Marchand added to those questions when he reported some surprising numbers the “Pat McAfee Show” is getting despite an elite weekly lead-in.
“Since the inception of McAfee’s show on ESPN in the fall, Stephen A. Smith and ‘First Take’ are handing McAfee a 583,000 viewer lead-in and McAfee is only maintaining 302,000, which is a 48 percent drop,” Marchand wrote.
Related: Stephen A. Smith boldly suggests ESPN should pay him more than Peyton Manning and Pat McAfee
Making matters worse is that “First Take’s” top competition, FS1’s “Undisputed” with Colin Cowherd is making up ground and has numbers that are often close, and sometimes better than McAfee’s.
“As compared to the same window last year, which featured ‘SportsCenter,’ McAfee is down 12 percent. On FS1, Colin Cowherd’s show has nearly beaten McAfee on some days and saw 19 percent growth from last year to an average of 156,000 viewers.”
Stephen A. Smith’s contract ends in 18 months and has made it publicly known he wants to be paid like the top views-getter he has become for the network. His show has been boosted by the addition of former “Undisputed” co-host Shannon Sharpe.
It must be noted, that McAfee does bring a lot for ESPN in terms of social media and delivers around 400,000 average views on YouTube for his show.