Social media loved the Peyton and Eli Manning show on Monday night. As in many other instances, the rest of the world didn’t share the same enthusiasm.
Via John Ourand of Sports Business Journal, the ESPN2 rating for the Ravens-Raiders game as enhanced (or otherwise) by the Manning brothers generated a 0.6 rating, with a share of 1. In contrast, the primary feed, televised by ABC and ESPN, rang up a 6.5 and 4.5 rating, respectively, and shares of 14 and 10.
It’s a surprising outcome, one that surely makes Steve Levy, Brian Griese, and Louis Riddick feel a little better after seeing the amount of praise heaped on the secondary broadcast that seemed certain to sabotage their overall number. Ultimately, it hardly took a dent out of the main audience.
The Manningcast may work better while watching the game alone than in a group. We had six people watching the game on the PFT patio; the natural conversation among those watching the game made the Manning discussion unnecessary and generally hard to follow. We turned it on four different times and almost immediately went back to the primary feed.
Meanwhile, some in the industry have grumbled about the willingness of Peyton Manning to undermine the primary crew in lieu of actually become a member of it. One person raised an interesting question: What would Manning say and do if he were the lead analyst on Monday Night Football and ESPN set up an alternate feed and hyped it relentlessly?
Maybe, once he saw the ratings, he wouldn’t care.
