Earlier this year, ESPN announced plans to bring The Pat McAfee Show to its daily programming lineup, marking a new era for the show after host Pat McAfee declared that another “Up to Something Season” had commenced. McAfee, representing the show, met with various networks over the course of several months before settling on signing with The Walt Disney Company-owned ESPN, calling its president of content, Burke Magnus, an ally to the show. McAfee’s show will be the exact same on ESPN, albeit bereft of expletives, and will live stream on the company’s digital platforms. The network’s new lineup officially debuts on Thursday, Sept. 7, coinciding with the start of the 2023 National Football League regular season.
Dan Orlovsky will be an integral part of the network’s coverage of both college football and the NFL this year, frequently appearing on NFL Live, calling select games in the secondary Monday Night Football booth and appearing on a Saturday show on the network to be named. ESPN Executive Editor and Head of Event and Studio Production Norby Williamson recently announced that Amanda Gifford would lead the network’s college football portfolio and Mark Gross over the NFL coverage. The announcements come following the sudden departure of senior vice president Lee Fitting, ending his 25-year tenure with the company.
Orlovsky was teammates with McAfee on the Indianapolis Colts and got to know him on the football field. Their initial friendship, however, blossomed during a conversation they had in a car on the night of the Heisman Trophy ceremony in the “Big Apple.”
“Sitting in the car talking with him, he was kind of telling me about the podcast and trying to generate that into what it’s become,” Orlovsky recalled. “I remember looking at him after… like, ‘You’re one of the smartest, idiotic people I know. I didn’t know you were this smart. Your personality is just so outrageous.’”
After the initial shock, Orlovsky began closely following McAfee’s media ventures and came to realize his sharp business acumen. During the negotiations, he had heard the rumors that there was traction towards McAfee agreeing to ink a contract to bring his show to ESPN and continuing to appear on College GameDay. In order to safeguard against disappointment, Orlovsky made sure to temper his expectations.
“You sit there and you hope, but you don’t want to get your hopes too high,” Orlovsky said. “When it became official, [I was] obviously super excited because I think the thing that is so endearing about Pat is, and it’s not in a disrespectful way, but he doesn’t let people’s opinions of him deviate who he is [or] alter who he is. We need more of that in the world, [and] we certainly need more of that in the sports media world.”
Orlovsky stressed that McAfee’s hosting approach portrays sports with buoyancy, understanding that at the end of the day, games are being played for purposes of entertainment. There are times on the air when analysts become serious or austere in their discourse and mannerisms, but people like McAfee understand that people are ultimately looking for an outlet to channel their emotions and be part of something bigger than themselves.
“I think the more that the people that are at the forefront of talking about sports and having fun talking about sports have those personality qualities, I think the more that that just is relatable to the people watching,” Orlovsky expressed. “More often than not, the people watching Pat are a lot like Pat. I think that’s kind of one of the lost – I don’t want to say ‘lost things’ in sports media – but we’re all regular people in many ways; we just somehow got on TV.”
