Year-End Awards: Best Innovation

Best Innovation: ManningCast

Portable MP3 players were on the market for three years before Apple launched the iPod in 2001. Myspace and Friendster both beat Facebook to market, but today are historical footnotes to Meta’s global social media dominance. And “alternative broadcasts” have been common to big football games on ESPN since 2014.

But the concept will never be the same after this year’s debut of the “ManningCast,” which instantly became the media sensation of the NFL season and reconfigured expectations for all future alternative broadcasts. The easy wit, playful charm and expert insights from brothers Peyton and Eli Manning — combined with ESPN’s spirit of experimentation and flexibility — have changed the standards forever.

1.9 million

Viewers for the Packers-Lions game on Sept. 20, almost double the previous high for an ESPN alternate telecast of 1.03 million in 2018.

Like the iPod and Facebook, the “ManningCast” found traction with its audience by fine-tuning a good idea and simply executing it better. Not unlike the early-pandemic 2020 NFL draft, a new format struck gold because of, not in spite of, limitations and compromises that contradict traditional media expectations.

As popular and successful quarterbacks, Peyton and Eli have the clout and leverage to work with ESPN on their terms, which led directly to the Zoom format and 10-game-a-year schedule, lending the broadcasts a sense of scarcity.

“What was clear to all of us was that flexibility was important,” ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro told the “Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast” in October. “I think Peyton said that, Eli said that, that flexibility in terms of his family was his top priority, and what I communicated back to Peyton is that we’re willing to be creative here.”

The show didn’t start out well. In the first quarter of its debut for Raiders vs. Ravens on Sept. 13, critics and journalists complained it was too frantic, with Peyton talking too much, trying to impersonate Jon Gruden, whiteboard a play and trying on helmets. ESPN’s senior vice president of production, Lee Fitting, suggested he focus more on analyzing the game.

That shift, plus that night’s first guest — Charles Barkley — helped the debut finish with a strong audience of 800,000. Viewership more than doubled to a remarkable 1.9 million the following week during a blowout Packers win over the Lions, and it’s never dipped below 1.5 million since then. Prior to the ManningCast in Week 2, the best alternate telecast on an ESPN network on record was 1.03 million for an ESPN2 “Homer” telecast around the Alabama-Georgia CFP Championship in January 2018.

In addition to those massive numbers, ManningCast has lent an air of anticipation and hype for the games, which have struggled to command attention ever since the NFL switched its best prime-time package to Sundays in 2006. One never knows when a host might accidentally flip off the camera (Eli, on Sept. 27) or a guest might zing the hosts (Joe Buck, on Dec. 6).

The runaway success means more leverage for the Mannings, who could extract a serious payday for more work at ESPN or another platform. But don’t expect that, Eli said. “We signed a contract to do 10 games a year for three years, and no one’s talked about changing that,” he said. “You’ve got a few bye weeks to get a break, get a breather, which is helpful.”

In a world of never-ending content, even that feels innovative.