These are some of the viral moments from “Monday Night Football with Peyton and Allie.” Also known as the “Manning Cast”—as in the brothers and former NFL quarterbacks—it sounds more like a talk show than an NFL broadcast.
And that’s the point.
“It’s a way for the league to expand its audience, especially younger audiences and maybe people who just don’t want to watch three hours of football,” Jay Rosenstein, former VP of programming at CBS Sports, told CNN Business. . “It’s like watching a game with your best friend.”
“Unexpected, authentic and fun”
Actually, the Manning cast is not a play-by-play of the game.
Instead, the famous host is doing what most spectators are doing at home: watching Monday Night Football. The brothers talk about the game (who plays with them on screen), hold interviews with notable guests such as Tom Brady, Charles Barkley and LeBron James, and ruthlessly tease each other as often as siblings. We do.
It airs side-by-side with the main game broadcast on ESPN 2, and has been a huge hit for the sports network so far. After starting the season with 800,000 viewers, the Manning cast made a significant jump with an average of 1.9 million viewers in weeks two and three. According to ESPN, after a three-week hiatus, it returned last Monday with 1.6 million viewers.
The final three episodes of the Manning cast now top ESPN’s viewership amid alternate broadcasts.
Rosenstein notes that if you find two people similar to Mannings, an alternate broadcast “doesn’t dilute the product.”
Looks like that’s what’s happening. According to ESPN, overall viewership ratings for Monday Night Football this season — which includes the Manning cast — are up 17% from 2020 and 15% from 2019.
Burke Magnus, ESPN’s president of programming and original content, told CNN Business that he believes the Manning cast has “deepened our already strong relationship with NFL fans” and that “the people and personalities of It has done so by showing it in a new, unexpected, authentic and fun way”. Climate.”
“These two people are unique”
The NFL has experimented with alternate broadcasts before.
Manning cast has no mud (…So far), but it has Peyton and Allie. That’s why it can be difficult to replicate the show’s success.
“The real strategic question is how sustainable and exemplary it is elsewhere,” Patrick Kreux, a former Fox Sports executive-turned-media consultant, told CNN Business. “I have real doubts that other alternative transmissions can reach these levels. These two people are very unique.”
Crax said that even spectators who don’t normally interact with NFL games “presumably know who Peyton Manning is.” That type of identity gives the Manning cast an edge that can be tough for the contestants.
But given the success of the Manning cast, they’ll probably try. This could evolve NFL broadcasts beyond the separate voices of analysts and commentators of color conversing in a booth.
“Can other networks find the right talent with the right chemistry to make broadcasts hypable and engaging enough to build on the audiences they already have?” Rosenstein said. “That’s what the network needs to figure out.”
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