Pat McAfee may quickly be reaching the point of oversaturation.
The ESPN personality McAfee managed to draw just 351,000 viewers for his debut alternate telecast to “Monday Night Football” this week, Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal reported on Thursday. McAfee’s alt-cast aired on ESPN2 for the San Francisco 49ers-Washington Commanders Week 6 game but was reportedly outperformed by NFL Network’s Next Gen Stats alt-cast for the same game (which drew in 469,000 viewers).
Karp adds that McAfee has five more “MNF” alt-casts coming up for ESPN this NFL regular season (with the next set to air in Week 9 during the Buffalo Bills-Minnesota Vikings games). You can read Karp’s full report on the situation here.
The former NFL All-Pro punter McAfee, 39, has quickly become one of ESPN’s biggest stars. He first joined the network on an $85 million deal in 2023 in connection with his popular program “The Pat McAfee Show” and is now reportedly in talks with ESPN for another staggering payday.
As a result of the network’s massive investment in him, McAfee is seeing a vast expansion of his on-air duties. In addition to his “MNF” alt-casts, McAfee has received some other notable NFL coverage roles from ESPN.
But with those meager numbers for his debut alt-cast, it appears that McAfee’s popularity is hitting its ceiling. In fairness though, even the once-popular “ManningCast” of Peyton and Eli Manning has also drawn disappointing viewership this season for ESPN.