ESPN continues to revamp and somewhat rebrand themselves, and a big part of that “new look” moving forward will be the addition of the uberly popular Pat McAfee Show.
The world wide leader in sports started to work McAfee into their company last year with his entertaining co-hosting of College GameDay. Clearly they liked what they saw with his comedic and high energy sports analysis, and decided that they wanted to bring him aboard.
ESPN stole away The Pat McAfee Show from FanDuel, his former “home” for his show that was set to pay him $120 million over the next four years. Pat actually decided to take a pay cut to join ESPN, and signed a deal where the network actually licenses his show from his own media company for five years (and over $85 million dollars).
Some longtime fans of the show have been concerned that moving the chaotic sports show to ESPN could cut down on the authenticity (and cursing) of the Pat McAfee Show.
However, McAfee said that moving to the sports network wouldn’t change his show at all, which was apparently a pretty big part of negotiations for bringing his sports show to the “world wide leader.”
The day for Pat McAfee and his crew to air on ESPN finally came today, and they decided that a “Jackass-esque” disclaimer read by someone doing a pretty decent Lou Holtz impersonation would be the best way to start their show:
“Warning: the following program is a collection of stooges talking about happening in the sports world. It is meant to be comedic informative. The opinions expressed on this show do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of their peers, their boss, or ESPN.
There may be some “cuss” words because that’s how humans in the real world talk. If you are young, please seek permission before watching any further.”
I’m not sure if the “p.s. Don’t sue us” will hold up in the court of law, but I’m sure The Pat McAfee Show will be just fine. Plus, for those die-hard Pat McAfee fans, the show will still air uncensored live on YouTube.
The version of the show that will air on ESPN will actually be on a tape delay to prevent cursing from getting through on live television, since you never know what will happen in “The Thunder Dome.”
