The ManningCast arrived in 2021 with plenty of buzz, but not with a huge piece of the Monday Night Football ratings. For the inaugural regular season, ESPN2’s simulcast featuring the Brothers Manning accounted for 13 percent of the total audience.
The buzz for Peyton and Eli has subsided. As have the numbers.
For the most recent three ManningCasts, the total audience has been flirting with the possibility of dipping below one million. On Monday night, 1.028 million chose the alternate telecast (featuring a visit from Arnold Schwarzenegger and his donkey). The Week 7 game (49ers-Vikings) had 1.068 million. For Week 5 (Packers-Raiders), the ManningCast attracted 1.036 million.
The percentages are not trending well, either. Each of this year’s five ManningCasts have fallen well under 10 percent of the total audience. For Week 1, it was 6.7 percent. Week 4 (a Giants game) increased the percentage to 7.4.
Week 5 dipped to 5.98 percent. Week 7 fell even farther, to 5.74 percent. This week, it bumped back up to 7.07 percent.
Consider this past quote from Daniel Cohen of Octagon, a sports-marketing firm: “If you can break a 10% number, then this is valuable.”
The Mannings aren’t breaking 10 percent. Part of that, this year, likely comes from the fact that ESPN has shared all games with ABC, due to the multiple strikes that have kept Hollywood at a standstill.
Still, the gross numbers are dropping. It feels inevitable that it will slip below a million, at some point. Maybe that will happen next week, with Broncos-Bills.
Regardless, it’s fair to ask whether the juice is worth the squeeze. It’s unclear how much Disney is paying the Mannings. Plenty of numbers float around industry circles. They’re not small.
The percentage of the total audience, however, is.