Wide World of Women

According to Awful Announcing, Pat McAfee Show will premiere on ESPN starting next month.

It'll take over 12pm SportsCenter spot. The show will move to 2pm.

Morning and evening lineup remains unchanged.

The 2pm show would have new hosts of SportsCenter with Hannah Storm, Shae Cornette, Matt Barrie, Jay Harris, Elle Duncan, Victoria Arlen are candidates for this.

The show will start on Thursday, September 7. Per ESPN’s release, it will run from noon ET, with the first two hours of the show will air on ESPN, ESPN+, and ESPN’s YouTube page. The third hour will air exclusively on ESPN+ and ESPN’s YouTube channel. SC will move two hours ahead with this move at 2 p.m. Eastern.

It will be interesting to see on Pat McAfee's show how much creative freedom will he have, compared to the free wheeling show seen on YouTube.

If anyone gets the chance, listen to the latest Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch of The Athletic. He had on Burke Magnus, who has held the title of president (programming and original content) since 2021, but was promoted to president of content in March 2023. He has oversight of the studio shows, live events, newsgathering, investigative journalism, original content/ESPN Films, the Talent Office, audio, digital and social media.

Some of his comments in the over hour long podcast that really struck me the most about Pat was:

“First of all, I think he’s supremely talented. I think he has tapped into the pulse of younger fans. I don’t want to even limit it at that, but just the contemporary sports fan. He sets the conversation. He has built a show from a blank piece of paper on his own…By the way, I think he also 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.

I think the big difference in that situation is we acquired the show. We didn’t hire Pat McAfee as a talent and then build the show around him. He already built the show that’s widely successful in the YouTube environment and we’re bringing that show to ESPN. That’s a big difference that was missed in a lot of the reporting on that particular. That show is the reason we wanted Pat McAfee, which is to say, we feel like he has tapped into something that will fit perfectly in our daytime lineup…that’s six hours that’s absolutely powerhouse Monday-Friday every single day, every single week on ESPN…I couldn’t be more excited about that.”

He also made it clear that Pat will not be limited to only having ESPN employees as guests on his shows. Ian Rappaport from the NFL Network has been a frequent guest.

Certainly, if you have been following the SI Media podcast with Jimmy Traina, he had Pat on as a guest on June 1 and pulled no punches on a variety of topics. Overall, it was an excellent interview:

https://youtu.be/WCV8bNjpOJw

Good luck going up against Jim Rome and Colin Cowherd. And I believe Rich Eisen is at the same time. You'll notice the pattern... All three were at ESPN at one point in their careers.

As I mentioned above, I am very curious to see how much creative control Pat McAfee will have--even though his show will continue to air on YouTube, but under the ESPN banner.

Bottom line, it's all driven by ratings. We will find out soon enough is his $8.5 million salary was worth the gamble, even though he flat out refused the thought that many in the media called out him being the main reason for covering up the 20 plus talent that were laid off or quit for different reasons.