Less than a year after signing a reported $85 million deal spread over five years to join ESPN, host Pat McAfee is not happy with at least one network executive.,
McAfee accused ESPN executive Norby Williamson by name in a Friday segment. Speaking to his cohost, A.J. Hawk, saying he was part of a group “actively trying to sabotage us from within ESPN.
Williamson is ESPN’s executive editor and head of event and studio production.
“We’re very appreciative, and we understand that more people are watching this show than ever before,” McAfee said on his show. “We’re very thankful for the ESPN folks for being very hospitable. Now, there are some people actively trying to sabotage us from within ESPN — more specifically, I believe, Norby Williamson is the guy who is attempting to sabotage our program.”
He continued, “Now, I’m not 100 percent sure. That is just seemingly the only human that has information, and then that information gets leaked, and it’s wrong, and it sets a narrative of what our show is.
“And then are we just gonna combat that from a rat every single time? Somebody tried to get ahead of our actual ratings release with wrong numbers 12 hours beforehand. That’s a sabotage attempt. It’s been happening this entire season from some people who didn’t necessarily love the old addition of The Pat McAfee Show to the ESPN family. There’s a lot of those.”
ESPN has not yet commented on McAfee’s remarks. The company issued a laudatory release touting the show earlier today, saying the show has “gained even more popularity since the show launched on ESPN platforms in September. In December, the show garnered 886,000 average viewers per episode during the live airings across all platforms (ESPN, YouTube, TikTok) through the show’s innovative live simulcast options.
“ESPN’s linear audience alone has ballooned by 20% since the first four weeks (Sept 7 to 29) now averaging 332,000 viewers per episode in the month of December, while the YouTube audience averaged 403,000 concurrently. Combined, it marks a 35% year-over-year increase from the noon to 2 p.m. time slot in 2022.
McAfee claimed that negative leaks are a regular part of ESPN stories.
“We’ve heard them anonymously quoted in the Washington Post, New York Post, New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal. They’re never like, ‘Love the show.’ It’s always little things to tear us down. So even with the enemy within our own camp, I don’t like that guy,” McAfee said.
“That guy left me in his office for 45 minutes — no-showed me in 2018. So this guy has had zero respect for me, and in return same thing back to him for a long time, so even with that taking place … we’re still growing somehow. We’re very thankful. I think we’re doing it right. We’re trying to do it as right as possible. We have good intentions every single time we come in here. We don’t always get it right, but motherf–kers have been getting it wrong for a long time in this specific field.”
