On Tuesday at The Walt Disney Company Upfront in New York City, it was announced that Pat McAfee is taking his digital show to ESPN. The reported eight-figure deal is unique in scope, as his show will air live on linear television and stream on ESPN’s YouTube channel simultaneously.
Prior to the conclusion of “Up to Something Season” being divulged, McAfee made sure to thank the fans of the show for believing him, and he is excited for the next chapter of the show. Yet there is also a deluge of people who believe McAfee and his show are “selling out” in going to ESPN, despite stating that the only change the show is making aside from operating in a block format is limiting its explicit language.
“I would also like a little bit of faith,” McAfee said on his show Wednesday. “Look at everything that I’ve been a part of – pretty much like everything. [It is a] little bit different, probably, than what other people have been a part of. No offense to anybody else, but the way my conversations normally go with people [are] a little bit different than how they normally go. The conversation with the powers that be at ESPN right now and at Disney all had the same exact line up.”
ESPN is home to a broad catalog of enticing content produced by a variety of studio and shoulder programming, including Get Up, First Take, College GameDay and Around the Horn among others. McAfee’s show has an unconventional approach in that it is more conversational and less formal in its structure, apropos to younger demographics predicated on instant gratification and evident dynamism. With McAfee’s show presumably slated to start the afternoons on ESPN – potential changes to the morning lineup notwithstanding – he hopes to alter the sports media ecosystem for years to come.
“Sports media has really been like one particular thing for a very long time,” McAfee said. “I know there’s people that do different things other than debate, but the debate era certainly became a thing in sports media and debates naturally lead to division and nitpicking and tearing people down…They start trying to mimic that and that’s become sports media pretty much.”
Rather than promulgating contentiousness, McAfee and his show want sports to act as a unifying force rather than an additional means of division. The host acknowledged that his program has people across the broad political spectrum.
“I think we have a real opportunity here to change sports media as a whole,” McAfee said. “Just like Stephen A. and Skip had success and everybody wanted to replicate it, if we’re able to get in there and showcase that, ‘Hey, you’re able to cover sports in a celebratory fashion; in a way that you’re happy for people as opposed to trying to prove why people shouldn’t be in the position that they’re in.’ I think there’s a chance that that could maybe ooze to other decisions that are being made.”
With the move to ESPN, McAfee is cognizant that the company will receive acclaim and pushback from its viewers, and is appreciative of them putting up with it. Even though the transition will have somewhat of an adjustment period for everyone involved, McAfee and his cast know they will be able to present an informative and innovative multiplatform show for everyone in the United States and abroad.
“Please have faith that we will be able to produce a show that is entertaining and still is so in our spirit,” McAfee implored, “because that is literally what the entire conversation was.”
