Pat McAfee on Friday accused ESPN executive Norby Williamson of damaging his program “The Pat McAfee Show” by leaking inaccurate viewership information to the media.
“There are some people from within ESPN actively trying to harm us,” McAfee said. “More specifically, Norby Williamson is the individual who is attempting to sabotage our program.”
McAfee said that someone tried to get ahead of the show’s December ratings release “12 hours earlier with false numbers”. He described it as an “attempted sabotage” and alleged that it had been happening throughout the season.
“It’s basically what’s been happening this entire season from some people who didn’t like ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ being added to the ESPN family,” McAfee said.
McAfee called Williamson “the enemy of our own camp.” She alleged that Williamson “left her in her own office for 45 minutes” in 2018 and “nobody showed up”.
“This guy had no respect for me, and he got the same thing back,” McAfee said.
On Saturday, ESPN said it would “handle this matter internally and will have no further comment.”
“There is no one more committed and invested in the success of ESPN than Norby Williamson,” ESPN said in a statement. “At the same time, we are thrilled with the multi-platform success the Pat McAfee Show has had on ESPN.”
McAfee took aim at Williamson after New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers alleged during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday that late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel was involved in a case filed against Jeffrey Epstein before his death. Will appear in court documents. The documents include the names of more than 150 people who were previously redacted from court filings. Kimmel’s name does not appear in any documents.
To start his show on Wednesday, McAfee addressed the situation, “We obviously don’t like the fact that we’re associated with anything negative. We want our show to be uplifting, lighthearted and fun. But that’s because we talk and try to take everything for granted. Some things, obviously people get very angry, especially when they are (serious) allegations,” he said. “So we apologize for being a part of this. Can’t wait to hear what Aaron says about this. Hopefully, both of them will be able to settle this simply and not in court. But be able to gossip and move on.
In May 2023, McAfee moved his show to ESPN as part of a multi-year deal. The show began airing live weekdays on ESPN, ESPN+ and ESPN’s YouTube channel in September. According to ESPN, the show achieved a total reach of 1.7 million per show across all platforms in December, up 21 percent from September.
Why is this especially bad for ESPN?
If you’ve studied the culture of ESPN for any amount of time, one of the things you learn about ESPN is that the ESPN-on-ESPN crime is often the worst crime an employee can commit.
There is infighting at ESPN, of course, as there is in every corporation with big egos and big salaries, but McAfee publicly calling out a powerful member of ESPN’s senior management on “The Pat McAfee Show” was “unprecedented action.” ” would fall under the phrase. ” ESPN was clearly going to oust McAfee given the headlines surrounding Rodgers this week.
what happens next? Well, we’re in uncharted waters and ESPN is in a place it hates: the center of attention on ESPN-on-ESPN crime. Some former ESPN employees who worked with Williamson were quick to criticize on Twitter, including Jemele Hill, who tweeted, “I can tell.” It’s a mess.
Hill later sent it along athletic, “The talent-on-talent crime creates a lot of headaches, complaints and when it comes out in the public domain, it disrupts the perception that ESPN is one big happy family. It’s dirty.” , Richard Dietsch, sports media writer
How will ESPN respond?
ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro and content president Burke Magnus have bet millions on McAfee. They believe in her talent, have given her show creative freedom (McAfee’s employees are not ESPN employees; the show is licensed), and have made her one of the faces of the network in a short time, including Including a starring role on GameDay (where in my opinion, he has been excellent). But the management is now in such a situation that there is no solution because there is no prior strategy for this.
If they suspend McAfee, it risks damaging the relationship. If they do nothing, it sends a message to other employees that they are encouraged to criticize management. By Friday night, some senior ESPN staffers were concerned that management would try to resolve the differences between McAfee and Williamson. We will see if it is possible. , German
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(Photo: Sam Hode/Getty Images)
