Inside the ManningCast: How ESPN and Two Football Brothers Are Transforming Sports TV
ESPN executives have been trying since 2018 to convince Peyton Manning to join the in-studio broadcast team for their flagship “Monday Night Football.” Now they may be happier that he turned down those overtures.That’s because the retired NFL quarterback has gained traction with an alternate “Monday Night Football” telecast for ESPN2 that he began hosting with his younger brother, Eli, another former all-star QB, in September. The stakes couldn’t be higher for ESPN, the NFL or the TV business — even though the decidedly low-tech broadcast, which quickly came to be known as “ManningCast,” feels like a cross between hanging out in a sports bar and a glorified Zoom session.