The Journal. - ESPN’s Big Bet on an F-Bomb-Throwing YouTube Star

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

As ESPN tries to transition to streaming and attract younger viewers, the sports-media giant is venturing outside its comfort zone with its newest star: Pat McAfee. WSJ's Isabella Simonetti explains why the F-bomb-throwing former NFL punter is a big bet for the network. Further Reading: - ESPN Bets Big on Pat McAfee, an F-Bomb-Throwing YouTube Star  Further Listening: - How Americans Watch Sports Is Changing  - The Troubled Second Act of Disney CEO Bob Iger  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the NFL season kicks off, millions of football fans are tuning in to ESPN, just like they've done for years. ESPN has been the dominant force in sports media for decades. It has huge brand value and still great reach. But like other cable networks and media companies in general, ESPN is facing a lot of business challenges right now. That's our colleague Isabella Simonetti. And she says this season, ESPN is trying something different. It's spicing up its content.

We've been waiting for this day that we can say that tonight the NFL starts and life is glorious, baby! That's the voice of Pat McAfee. An F-bomb throwing. It was like, yeah, this guy's our f***ing quarterback. Bombastic. Former NFL player who hosts a popular sports show on YouTube. And last Thursday, that show made its debut on ESPN. Hello, beautiful people.

its debut on ESPN. Sport! Sport! Sport! Hello, beautiful people. Welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome, on this magical NFL kickoff Thursday, September 7, 2023. This sports program starts now! Football! McAfee isn't your typical ESPN commentator.

And that's exactly why the network wanted him. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Monday, September 11th. Coming up on the show, why ESPN is betting on Pat McAfee. When it comes to smart water alkaline 9.5 plus pH with antioxidant, there's nothing to overthink. So while you may be performing mental gymnastics over whether the post-work gym crowd is worth it, if you'll be able to find a spot for your yoga mat, or if that spin instructor will make you late for dinner again,

don't overthink how you hydrate. Life's full of choices. Smart Water Alkaline is a simple one. Like many media companies, ESPN, which is majority owned by Disney, is struggling to find young viewers as audiences turn to streaming. And although ESPN is still hugely profitable for Disney, more people are cutting the cable TV cord. is still hugely profitable for Disney, more people are cutting the cable TV cord. So in 2011, ESPN was in about 100 million households

through traditional cable providers. And now in 2023, they're in about 71 million households. So that's a pretty big decline over time, and they need to figure out how to preserve the audience that they have while bringing on younger viewers. Enter Pat McAfee. Oh, gee, that just sounded in my ear. Numbers are out. Ladies and gentlemen, we have breaking news. Not only is Tom Brady projected to become the number one analyst for Fox Sports.

Before hitting it big on YouTube, McAfee was a punter for the Indianapolis Colts. He was named an All-Pro for the 2014 season, an honor given to the best players in the league. He was also chosen to play in two Pro Bowls, the NFL's all-star game. McAfee retired in 2017, and then he joined the media company Barstool Sports, where he began the Pat McAfee Show. He also made guest appearances on ESPN and Fox Sports. Eventually, he went independent, leading to his hugely popular show on YouTube, which now has more than 2 million subscribers. Look at him, he's up on top of the screen. Bam! That's one hit. Oh, you want a little bit more? That's my guy.

That's a quarterback. The Pat McAfee Show is known for its casual vibe. McAfee doesn't wear a suit like a lot of ESPN anchors do. Instead, he wears a black tank top and a gold chain around his neck. In terms of his personality, he's like very cheeky, has a sarcastic sense of humor. He curses a lot and his show is very casual and bro-y, if that makes sense. And you actually interviewed him, right? I did. Yeah, I talked to him for the story. What was he like? Does it hold up to his character on his show? I do think you're getting a pretty similar person off camera that you are on camera.

He's definitely business savvy and he knows what he's doing and is strategic about what he's saying most of the time, which came off more in the interview than maybe in his show. What do you mean? that sports media has adapted this debate format that is very nitpicky, he says, and, you know, creates tension and doesn't celebrate sports. Whereas what he's trying to do is create a show and a platform that celebrates athletes and sports and brings, you know, pride and joy to all of that and draws a younger audience as opposed to some of the other formats that have been popular. He's a refreshing voice. He knows what it's like to be in the locker room and he sort of brings that locker room talk to his show. McAfee also gets pretty big interviews with star athletes, like Aaron Rodgers,

widely considered one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Earlier this year, Rodgers was deciding whether he would retire, continue his nearly 20-year career with the Green Bay Packers, or play for a new team. Everyone wanted to know what he was going to do. When he finally made his decision that he would play for the New York Jets, Rodgers didn't go to a traditional ESPN program or a Fox sports segment.

Instead, he made his announcement on the Pat McAfee show. Because I still have that fire and I want to play and I would like to play in New York. It's just a matter of, you know, getting that done at this point. OK, people in New York are doing this right now. People in New York are pumped right now. And I appreciate you laying it all out there. But there are also people who really don't like what he's about. They don't like that he wears a black tank top and is so casual.

And they don't like that he curses a lot. And they don't like some of the jokes that he's made that they've found offensive, whether that be on Twitter or on a college football telecaster on his actual show. Do you have any examples of those things that he said or tweeted? Yeah, I think the most recent example is he tweeted this joke in response to a picture of Michigan State's neon green uniforms, which many people thought were ugly. And he said something along the lines of, Larry Nassar was on the design team for these uniforms. Larry Nassar being the gymnastics physician who sexually abused hundreds of his patients. McAfee responded to the backlash on his show.

I do apologize if some people took that in a different way and then spun it in their own narrative to offend a bunch of other people and then kind of did that whole thing. I was simply talking shit to my friend. McAfee also tweeted that, quote, Larry Nassar is a terrible human being, and this show has covered that pretty extensively. During the pandemic, McAfee also drew criticism for another interview with Aaron Rodgers, where Rodgers talked about not getting vaccinated against COVID-19.

McAfee's show has also competed with ESPN to some degree, and that's created tensions in the past. Pat McAfee and his show had a pretty frosty relationship with ESPN at one point. I believe in 2021, there was a ban on ESPN commentators or talent going on McAfee's show just because executives at ESPN felt that it was competitive with their own programming. And McAfee and his team were very upset about this. And the hashtag ESPN stinks trended on Twitter. Hey, if you're listening

or watching this show right now, when you guys took to the internet to say hashtag ESPN stinks for not allowing anybody to come on our show,

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Not long after the ESPN stinks drama, McAfee and ESPN started talking again. There's been great conversations that have been happening. There has been, you know, some people trying to say, hey, we f***ed up. All right. And I appreciate the hell out of that. And I'm excited about that. Eventually, the two sides made up. And last year, McAfee joined ESPN's weekly college football program as a full-time analyst.

He was still running his YouTube show. Then, in November, he announced that his wife was pregnant. McAfee said he wanted to spend more time with his family, and he realized he didn't want to run his show independently anymore. So he started looking around for other networks who could help with the operations. ESPN was interested. And as both sides started to figure out a way to work together,

McAfee met with Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney. to work together, McAfee met with Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney. He calls Bob Iger the Bob father. When I was talking, yeah, it was hilarious. I mean, that kind of gets at the core of his whole personality. Like nothing is too serious for him. He went and he wore his tank top and gold necklace and met with him. And they talked about, you you know how Bob Iger likes to sail and his kids and they talked about how Pat McAfee loves Steve Jobs and the Steve Jobs quote that he has in his office and at least from what McAfee told me he walked away from that meeting feeling like they were on the same page. And pretty soon after that, he finalized his deal with ESPN. In May, McAfee's daughter was born.

But I will tell you what, I'm a f***ing pump dad right now. Let's go! The same month McAfee became a father, ESPN announced it had signed a licensing deal with his show. According to people familiar with the terms, it was a five-year contract worth more than $85 million. We will be launching on ESPN, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok. And we are so incredibly pumped and thankful. The NFL kicks off. The following month, ESPN laid off around 20 on-screen commentators,

including some who had been with the network for a long time. ESPN said it was a cost-saving measure. So they're sort of at a crossroads right now. And this hire of McAfee is at the center of what they're trying to do in order to steer their business into its next era. How is this deal received by both the public and insiders at ESPN? I think, especially after the ESPN layoffs were announced in June, he faced a lot of online backlash from people, sort of implying that ESPN is paying you so much money and that's why they had to fire these people. Which is not exactly how things work, but it makes sense that people might connect those dots. things work, but it makes sense that people might connect those dots. Internally at ESPN,

I would say that the reaction was mixed. There's been a lot of talent who's very vocally supportive of McAfee, but that doesn't mean that there aren't people at ESPN who are frustrated that the network is paying McAfee a large amount of money and veering into a new type of programming that not everyone is necessarily on board with. The Pat McAfee Show is now on from noon to 2 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN, replacing SportsCenter. It will also stream on YouTube and ESPN+. A third hour will air only on the digital platforms. So is McAfee's show going to be any different on ESPN than it is on YouTube? So executives at ESPN have said that they want Pat to be Pat and for him to do his thing. They don't want him to change his style because that's why they wanted his show in the first place. One thing that will change slightly

is he's going to take the cursing down a couple of notches or at least try to, and his show will be on a delay and some of the cursing will be muted out. He also told me that he's going to have a swear jar and donate the proceeds to charity. So that will be sort of a motivator for him not to curse as much. Interesting. A way like, use the swearing for a good cause. Yeah. In the show's first hour as part of ESPN, McAfee let an F-bomb loose. Hell yeah, f***ing right we did. Oh, I just said, right there, there's the first one. Yeah, that's right. Oh my god, hour and we're there.

Almost made it. Oh! Didn't even notice. What does this move say about where ESPN is right now? I think it says that ESPN is willing to break out of its traditional comfort zone in order to find a younger audience and tackle its most pressing business issues. So far, ESPN says advertiser demand for the show is high. But Isabella says McAfee could make a joke or a controversial statement that could upset advertisers. And it's not yet clear how ESPN's traditional audience will respond to McAfee.

There's a lot riding on his show's success. How much pressure is on ESPN to try and right the ship? brought on by the increasing price of sports rights. And there are new bidders now, like Amazon and Apple, that have more money. There's cord cutting, which we mentioned. There's what's going on in the regional sports space. ESPN isn't putting all of its eggs in the McAfee basket. Bob Iger says he'd like the network to find a strategic partner, a big tech company or a major sports league,

to support its transition to streaming. Still, it seems like McAfee will be a big part of those efforts, at least for now. Pat McAfee gets at all of the issues that ESPN is facing right now and is sort of a vehicle for helping them address a good number of them. In an ideal world, McAfee will bring spicier programming, younger viewers, viewers across different platforms, and he can potentially help promote

their new sports betting venture. That's all for today, Monday, September 11th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're out every weekday afternoon. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.