Insider predicts if Tom Brady will attract extra viewers for announcing debut

It was learned back in May that living legend Tom Brady will make his regular-season debut as Fox's lead in-game NFL analyst for the Sept. 8 matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns.

For a mailbag published on Monday, media insider Richard Deitsch of The Athletic touched upon whether he thinks Brady will give Fox a noteworthy ratings bump for Week 1 of the upcoming campaign.

"Fox and the NFL set up his debut game to have massive viewership because it features the Dallas Cowboys against the Cleveland Browns in an exclusive national Sunday afternoon window in Week 1," Deitsch wrote about Brady. "There will be no CBS competition kicking off at the same time, 4:25 p.m. ET. So that’s a game I would say some people (maybe it’s an extra 500,000 to one million) will tune in to watch how Brady does."

Brady and Fox agreed to a 10-year deal reportedly worth $375M following the 2021 season before the seven-time Super Bowl champion retired from playing for good in February 2023 but also before Greg Olsen became an award-winning analyst while sitting in the chair Brady will occupy this fall. Last month, Brady seemed to kick off the start of an unofficial media tour meant to hype up his future appearances in Fox booths and on editions of "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" program.

While Fox executives may never admit this out loud, logic suggests at least some are hoping football fans who rooted against Brady for the better part of two decades will tune in to see if the future Hall of Famer will fail in his next football-related endeavor. Interestingly, Deitsch noted that data shows that "viewers watch games for the game itself" and not because of any one broadcaster.

"But the presentation of the game and how viewers process the game matters greatly to leagues and broadcasters because they want you to leave the broadcast wanting to come back," Deitsch added. "With leagues specifically, they want people in the booth who they believe represent their product — and leagues have some veto power on broadcast hires, even if the networks don’t publicly admit that."

Fox is betting that handfuls of viewers who typically would either watch NFL RedZone or do something else during the 4:25 p.m. ET NFL window will want to hear what Brady is and/or isn't as a commentator on the afternoon of Sept. 8. If Brady becomes just another announcer as it pertains to ratings by Week 18, his contract could spark some interesting conversations regarding what outlets offer other personalities for future broadcasting gigs.