Peyton and Eli Manning were a hit on ESPN2 last year with their alternate broadcast for multiple Monday Night Football games. The ManningCast saw its audience grow regularly and won praise across the industry.
On Wednesday’s edition of Boomer & Gio on WFAN, Boomer Esiason said it wasn’t always appointment television for him, but he did think the ManningCast had plenty of value.
“To me, if the game stinks, then I’ll turn them on,” Boomer said noting that the Manning brothers are entertaining and knowledgeable enough to make chicken salad out of a chicken you-know-what football game.
According to Giannotti though, the broadcast is not without its flaws.
“I do think they gotta drop the guests,” he said. “The guests are a big problem.”
The guests are meant to provide insight and entertainment. Gio said they actually have a very different effect. They tend to be more distracting than anything.
“They put them on those Zooms and the connection is always terrible and they are talking over each other and there is a delay.”
The Manningcast is designed to be a fully remote set up. Eli Manning is in New Jersey. Peyton is in Denver. The guests join from their homes.
Giannotti understands that there probably won’t come a day when the ManningCast has absolutely no guests. He just wants the stars of the show to have room to make an impact. Fewer guests would be a good start.
“They put like three of them on a broadcast, so it’s ‘bring in another guest, bring in another guest’ and it takes away from Peyton and Eli.”
