Media

ESPN Will Have a ManningCast for the Super Bowl

Magnus is also looking at coverage options for the week leading up to the game.
The brothers’ show just kicked off its fourth season.

Sep 11, 2024 | 02:51 pm

The Columbus Dispatch

Peyton and Eli Manning each won two Super Bowls. Now the brothers will call one.

ESPN’s Super Bowl isn’t until Feb. 14, 2027, in Los Angeles. But the network is already planning its all-out coverage of its first NFL title game.

At Tuesday’s Front Office Sports Tuned In summit in New York, reporter Michael McCarthy asked ESPN president of content Burke Magnus if that Super Bowl would have a ManningCast.

“If we didn’t, I think I’d have a problem with those two fellows,” Magnus said. “But yeah, that’s gonna be definitely a part of it.”

The Manning brothers have taken armchair quarterbacking to the next level in their Monday Night Football broadcast on ESPN2, which debuted in 2021 and has been heralded for the brothers’ chemistry, guest list, and ability to teach the game to its viewers. ESPN originally agreed to a three-year deal for ManningCast in 2021, but it has extended the deal multiple times with Omaha Productions, Peyton’s production company, and now runs through 2034.

Former Patriots coach Bill Belichick joined the brothers for Monday’s game between the Jets and 49ers and will be a regular guest on the production this season. Monday’s ManningCast had an all-time low of just 872,000, a 43% drop-off from Week 1 of the 2023 season. One potential reason could be ESPN’s lack of availability to DirecTV viewers due to failed negotiations between the company and ESPN parent company Disney. DirecTV has 11 million customers.

Magnus said the company recently created a position for a full-time employee to project-manage the Super Bowl as their sole job. The game will take place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., not too far from Disney’s Burbank headquarters. “How can we bring the full weight of Disney to bear on this event?” Magnus said Tuesday. The network is hiring a full-time “VP of the Super Bowl” ahead of 2027.

“It was very, very important to me that we had a person and a small team of people built around this leader who are fully dedicated,” Magnus said. “As I like to say, get out of bed every morning thinking about that Super Bowl and only that. So that they can keep everything moving in that direction.”