In the world of American football broadcasting, every network has a crack team of public relations experts whose job is to make sure the glass is always seen as half full, even when it’s mostly empty. They are masters at spinning any negative situation into a perceived positive, even if it means contorting themselves into more knots than a pretzel playing Twister. However, sometimes the negativity is just too overwhelming to spin in a positive light, and in that case, the solution may be to simply ignore it.
This seemed to be the case for ESPN when it came to the Week 1 ManningCast numbers. For the first time since the Peyton and Eli show made its debut three years ago as an alternate Monday Night Football broadcast, ESPN chose not to include the specific ESPN2 audience numbers in the press release announcing the total viewership.
Despite this omission, the total number of viewers was impressive – the Jets-49ers game drew an average of 20.5 million viewers, even with ESPN and (in many markets) ABC unavailable on DirecTV. According to the ESPN P.R. team, this makes it the second most-watched Week 1 game in the ESPN era of Monday Night Football. (Having the game simulcast on ABC certainly didn’t hurt.)
When asked about the ManningCast numbers, ESPN’s PR team remained tight-lipped. Speculation is rife that the show may have finally dipped below the one million viewer mark. On one hand, the DirecTV blackout could serve as a convenient excuse for the lower numbers. On the other hand, the addition of Bill Belichick to the show was expected to be a draw.
However, it seems that Belichick’s presence may have lost some of its luster. The legendary coach has been so overexposed in the media that watching him on ManningCast is no longer a must-see event. Furthermore, Belichick’s appearance didn’t yield any groundbreaking insights that highlighted his coaching genius.