ManningCast plummets to all-time low of 872,000 viewers

Well, now we know why the ESPN press release regarding the Week 1 TV audience omitted any reference to the ManningCast.

The 2024 season debut sank to an all-time low of 872,000, via Sports Business Daily. Previously, the alternative broadcast had been dancing on the line of slipping below one million viewers.

It was a 43-percent drop from Week 1 in 2023. The number represents only 4.2 percent of the total audience, as announced by ESPN, of 20.5 million.

Yes, the DirecTV audience was and continues to be excluded. That’s 11 million potential viewers.

Of course, the ESPN release could have mentioned that fact when disclosing the number. Apparently, the number was regarded as so bad that even a fairly obvious explanation/excuse was eschewed.

Making matters worse is the fact that the arrival of Bill Belichick (who surely didn’t appear on the show for free) didn’t move the needle, at all. I watched it yesterday morning. I learned more from Peyton than I learned from Belichick, whose biggest strategic offering was to suggest the Jets should throw to Garrett Wilson on every passing play.

And here’s where I’ll say what plenty in the media believe but few will dare to utter, given the overall power and influence of Peyton Manning: At what point does ESPN admit that it’s all a gigantic waste of money?

Whatever it costs per year — $10 million, $20 million, $30 million — is it worth it? Is anyone who wouldn’t be watching the game tune in to watch the ManningCast? At best, the ManningCast siphons viewers from the main broadcast.

So if the total audience is the same, why do it? For some media executives, a show like this becomes a vanity license plate. You think it’s cool and people will comment on it favorably but ultimately no one gives a shit.

The ManningCast draws praise from the media. That’s the only remotely tangible contribution it provides to the shareholders of The Walt Disney Company. And the praise might no longer be genuine, but merely a product of the pandering to Peyton given his perceived power in pro football media, and beyond.

While Peyton has proven to be a masterful business person, the case could be made that his off-field superpower has been to leverage perception into reality — and to keep hard realities like Monday night’s abysmal audience number hidden from view.