ManningCast posts terrible ratings

The 2024 NFL season premiere of Monday Night Football couldn’t have set the table better for the ManningCast to put up big numbers.

It featured the Super Bowl runner-up San Francisco 49ers versus the New York Jets in Aaron Rodgers’ first game since suffering an Achilles injury.

Peyton and Eli were welcoming legendary coach Bill Belichick, who will be appearing as a special guest on all 11 broadcasts this season. They would also be joined by A-lister Adam Sandler and Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones .

Ohama Productions pulled out all the stops with a star-studded promotional video released the prior week as well as a media blitz to mark the return of the ESPN2 alternative broadcast.

While the game wasn’t a nail-biter, it featured plenty of interesting storylines. Christian McCaffrey’s surprise absence allowed Jordan Mason to shine . Rodgers flashed moments of former brilliance . Brandon Aiyuk’s dropped touchdown pass gave Peyton the chance to air his grievances .

Sure enough, ABC/ESPN’s ratings announcement on Tuesday was big, generating 20.5 million viewers across all networks . However, while the announcement cited Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on the main broadcast, it didn’t mention ESPN2’s ManningCast. Normally, that ratings number would be broken out and it was notable to those who follow these things that it was absent.

We learned why late on Tuesday when Douglas Pucci at Programming Insider shared that the ManningCast saw an average of 872,000 viewers.

To put that in perspective, that is the lowest rating number since the very first ManningCast in September 2021, which garnered 800,00 viewers . It’s also only the third ManningCast in four years to garner less than one million viewers, with the other being the December 2023 doubleheader featuring the Giants vs. Packers and Titans vs. Dolphins, which pulled in around 940,000 viewers (and had to deal with a simulcast).

In each of the past two years, the ManningCast has debuted strong and seen audiences taper off during the season. With that knowledge, seeing such a low number to open the 2024 season has to be disconcerting for ESPN.

Now, there are some caveats worth considering. First, the game was simulcast on ABC and ESPN, which likely pulled some viewers away from ESPN2. Second, the DirecTV/Disney carriage dispute did not end , which means millions of potential viewers were unable to watch the game on ESPN2 (though they may have been able to watch on ABC if their local affiliate isn’t owned by Disney).

While many viewers expressed enjoyment watching Belichick cut it up with his former rivals, his appearance suffered from glitches, lag, and the trio speaking over one another , which could have driven away casual viewers.

Last season saw the ManningCast ratings plateau early as the broadcast flirted with a sub-million viewership number for several weeks before it finally dipped. To be fair, that number rebounded the following week and for their Wild Card playoff game broadcast .

This is perhaps obvious but the broadcast’s best numbers last season came during highly anticipated matchups, peaking with the November Super Bowl rematch between the Philadelphia Eagles at Kansas City Chiefs (1.92 million viewers).

This season, Peyton and Eli return in Week 2 for the Atlanta Falcons vs. Eagles, which may or may not get them a bump. Getting the New Orleans Saints at the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 5 certainly bodes well, at least.

So what’s the big takeaway? We’d love to see another week of ratings numbers before making a solid assessment. That said, keeping in mind the caveats, it’s hard not to wonder once more if the novelty of the ManningCast has worn off for some NFL fans.

It’s also worth noting that the ManningCast’s appeal was never really about ratings . If it can generate social media clips that pull in millions of impressions, trend on X during Monday nights, and continue to attract A-list guests, it’s doing its job.

Still, the fact that ABC/ESPN left that viewership number out of their announcement says something about their concern over how it would be perceived.

[ Programming Insider , Sports TV Ratings ]

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