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Deep in the heart of Texas on Monday night, Pat McAfee was doing what he was hired by ESPN last May to do — talk football to a passionate audience. As part of the company’s multi-platform coverage of Michigan’s 34-13 win over Washington, there was McAfee, roaming the sidelines of NRG Stadium in Houston with his usual frenetic zeal and a white cowboy hat, announcing the national championship game (on ESPN2) as part of the “Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show,” part of the smorgasbord of offerings for ESPN’s megacast presentation of the college football national championship. McAfee and his show cast provided the same broadcast for the Rose Bowl game between Michigan and Alabama on Jan. 1, drawing a healthy 1.4 million viewers, the largest audience for any college football alternate telecast.
ESPN was one big happy football family Monday night. The viewership for the main telecast on ESPN should be decent given the game was tight heading into the fourth quarter. But the days leading up to it were as bumpy as ESPN has seen in some time.
Three days before the college football title game, McAfee accused longtime ESPN executive Norby Williamson of sabotaging his program by leaking false viewership information to the media.
“There are some people actively trying to sabotage us from within ESPN,” McAfee said Friday. “More specifically, Norby Williamson is the guy who is attempting to sabotage our program.”
That was preceded two days earlier by McAfee apologizing following an appearance by regular guest Aaron Rodgers. The New York Jets quarterback crassly suggested ties between ABC late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel and Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. (Kimmel’s name has not appeared in hundreds of pages of previously sealed court documents related to Epstein.) ESPN’s parent company Disney owns ABC, where “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” airs. Thus, a corporate mess.
Rodgers is scheduled to appear on McAfee’s show again Tuesday, and given the news of the week, the appearance will draw similar interest to last March when Rodgers announced on McAfee’s show his desire to play for the New York Jets in 2023. With a tumultuous beginning to 2024, here are some things to think about regarding the state of the ESPN-McAfee relationship.
Pat McAfee, during Monday night’s national championship game. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
Where do things stand between ESPN management and McAfee today?
For the moment, everyone has agreed to stand down. How long that can realistically last is impossible to prognosticate.
ESPN is a company that historically has loathed internal squabbles turning public, and ESPN-on-ESPN crime in many ways is the worst transgression a staffer can commit because, like most media companies, it is very conscious of how it appears to the public. (Such conflict quickly turns into content generation for others and provides an endless supply of social media commentary.) It is also significant that McAfee is one of the highest-paid on-air talents at the company.
Top management has placed a big bet that McAfee can bring in a younger audience to ESPN and, specifically, draw people in from non-linear platforms. (The company put out a very long press release on Jan. 5 that specifically highlighted his reach across multiple platforms, including YouTube and TikTok.) The linear numbers for “The Pat McAfee Show,” meaning viewership on ESPN, averaged 332,000 viewers in the month of December, per ESPN. For a more real-time data point, Sports Media Watch reported the show averaged 290,000 viewers on ESPN last Thursday; the FS1 competition in that spot drew 190,000. McAfee’s show is simulcast from noon-2 p.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN on YouTube and ESPN+, with the final 2-3 p.m. hour airing on ESPN+ and “The Pat McAfee Show” channel on YouTube.
In-fighting at ESPN of course happens, as it does at every corporation with big egos and big salaries. But McAfee publicly calling out a powerful member of ESPN’s senior management is highly unusual. Williamson oversees NFL and college football at ESPN along with “SportsCenter,” audio, the SEC Network, MLB, NHL, combat, golf, tennis and investigative journalism. He has long been one of the most powerful executives at the company given that he can make or break careers with his portfolio.
On Saturday, ESPN put out a statement saying it will handle this matter internally and have no further comment.
“No one is more committed to and invested in ESPN’s success than Norby Williamson,” the statement said. “At the same time, we are thrilled with the multi-platform success that we have seen from ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ across ESPN.”
ESPN declined to make chairman Jimmy Pitaro, president of content Burke Magnus or Williamson available. A spokesperson reiterated that they are not commenting beyond the statement.
For many of those with close ties to ESPN, the criticism of management was not surprising, only the public nature of the feud.
“I can’t recall the last time or (any time) that they’ve had to publicly defend an ESPN executive like this before,” said Jemele Hill, who worked as a columnist and on-air host at ESPN for 12 years. “I definitely didn’t enjoy when (Willamson) was in charge of our ‘SportsCenter.’ … I also didn’t like some of the decisions he made concerning our show, and I made no secret of that. The bigger question is, what happens the next time an ESPN talent publicly criticizes the company?”
James Andrew Miller, the author of the best-selling “Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN,” which chronicles the history of the network, said there have been numerous examples of brands, shows, or personalities at ESPN who faced internal dissension from certain corners of ESPN management.
“Some of those individuals targeted found ways to defend their shows and themselves,” Miller said. “What makes Pat’s statement last week so unique was his decision to push back on the record and mention a specific ESPN exec. … Regardless, the episode has been a Grade-A mess.”
Pat McAfee, on the set of “College GameDay” in October. (Jesse Beals / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Are the rules different for McAfee at ESPN?
There is a star system at every media company, and top earners and performers are often treated differently. No different than professional sports. What makes this situation unique is that Pitaro and Magnus have been very public about where they stand with McAfee. They believe in his talents, they have given his show creative freedom, and they have made him in a short time one of the faces of the network, including a prominent role on “College GameDay.”
This was Magnus to The Athletic last August on why ESPN hired McAfee: “First of all, I think he’s supremely talented. He has tapped into the pulse of younger fans. … He has built a show from a blank piece of paper on his own. I think he took a lot of slings and arrows undeservedly in a lot of articles where people tried to draw a direct correlation between our workforce reductions and the acquisition of his show, which is insane. We acquired a show. We didn’t hire Pat McAfee as a talent and then build a show around him. He already built a show that is wildly successful in the YouTube environment and we’re bringing that show to ESPN.”
McAfee tweeted out a photo on Sunday showing him and Magnus, who is Williamson’s supervisor, hanging out at the Houston Texans–Indianapolis Colts game on Saturday night, a photo that was certainly noticed by those following this story.
Other than the final score.. Last night was awesome..
GREAT company and vibes in the suite pic.twitter.com/KTtvV5pcR0
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 7, 2024
McAfee also made very clear on Monday’s show how much he appreciated Magnus, Pitaro and ESPN — and how he would not take back anything he said about Williamson.
On the subject of McAfee, Pitaro told The Athletic in September 2022: “His top attributes are exactly what we look for — he’s willing to say what he believes, he is genuine, incredibly knowledgeable and passionate. He resonates strongly among young fans, and he has a significant and engaged social presence. He’s that rare talent that both my teenagers and I find compelling.”
McAfee getting a ton of leeway should not be a surprise given Pitaro and Magnus’ previous public statements. But many ESPNers contacted by The Athletic this weekend were stunned that an on-air staffer could be so emboldened to criticize management publicly without any repercussions.
Said one longtime ESPN on-air staffer who was granted anonymity to speak freely: “The decision to do nothing and essentially have no repercussions on either side is unhinged — it’s insane.”
Offered another longtime on-air ESPN employee: “Well, my feeling is Pat is more valuable than Norby to ESPN, so I’m sure they’ll steer clear of one another.”
What happens next?
Tuesday’s appearance by Rodgers (and any subsequent ones to follow) will be closely monitored by ESPN management. If Rodgers’ appearance veers off the tracks, watch out.
Mike Foss, an ESPN senior vice president of studio and digital production, called Rodgers’ comments about Kimmel “a dumb and factually inaccurate joke.” But let’s not be naive here. ESPN management loves the fact that Rodgers goes on McAfee’s show because they benefit from that transaction via the attention those appearances produce. Rodgers only became an issue for management when he attacked a major player in the Disney universe (Kimmel).
Suspensions of talent have been part of ESPN’s DNA for decades, and years ago this wouldn’t have even been a discussion — McAfee would have been suspended. But we’re in new territory now, and McAfee is in a position of leverage with “The Pat McAfee Show” because ESPN licenses the show and McAfee has creative control of the content, including guest booking. He has also become the centerpiece of “GameDay,” ESPN’s most important non-game college football property. (His work on “GameDay” is separate from his deal for “The Pat McAfee Show.”) Lastly, he’d have a new media deal in a nanosecond if he and ESPN parted.
It’s remarkable to consider that McAfee started appearing on ESPN full-time just five months ago. His agreement with the company has more than four years to go.
(Top photo: Erica Denhoff / Cal Sport Media via AP Images)
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