The McAfee Hail Mary and ESPN's Search for Answers

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by journalist Ethan Strauss of the ‘House of Strauss’ Substack to discuss the messy Pat McAfee saga and what it says about the state of ESPN. They unpack ESPN's decision to license 'The Pat McAfee Show,' whether the attempt to draw younger audiences to ESPN's linear channel is working, and whether the YouTube-ification of ESPN is a sustainable model. Matt finishes the show with a prediction about who will host the next Academy Awards. For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ click here. Email us your thoughts! thetown@spotify.com Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Ethan Strauss Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Asa Kwanga and I'm Ryan Hunt and we co-host Stadio, a football podcast on the Ring of Podcast Network.
0:06.7	If you like soccer or football, make sure you search for Stadio, a football podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:15.9	It is Wednesday, January 10th. We don't do a lot of garden variety media scandals or petty feuds on
0:23.1	this show. But what's going on with ESPN and the Pat McAfee show right now raises some pretty
0:28.6	big business issues for the network and for Disney as well. If you haven't been following it,
0:34.0	I definitely do not blame you, but here is the gist. Pat McAfee,
0:37.9	former NFL player, turned very popular YouTube sportscaster and podcaster. He brought his show
0:44.3	to ESPN last year. You might remember the photo of McAfee in his signature tank top with Disney
0:49.9	CEO Bob Iger in Iger's office. ESPN's audience is aging.
0:55.3	McAfee reaches a younger sports fan.
0:57.4	It was kind of a coup for ESPN at the time,
0:59.8	though they supposedly paid him $85 million to license the show for five years.
1:05.1	I've heard that number is a little lower, but whatever.
1:07.7	McAfee also has Aaron Rogers, the quarterback on his show every week. And last
1:12.5	week, Rogers thought it would be cool to suggest in what may or may not have been a joke that
1:17.1	Jimmy Kimmel would be on the list of people who visited Jeffrey Epstein's Island. Yes,
1:22.7	Jimmy Kimmel, the late-night host of ABC, another Disney division.
1:30.1	Kimmel predictably didn't enjoy that association.
1:31.7	He threatened to Sue Rogers. Then amid all the media coverage of the feud,
1:35.2	the New York Post dropped a story with internal ESPN ratings data
1:39.0	showing that McAfee's show isn't doing very well.
1:42.9	McAfee then complained on his show that a longtime ESPN executive named Norby Williamson
	...

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