Jimmy Pitaro is well aware of the perception that Pat McAfee gets held to a different standard than the rest of ESPN’s talents.
But the reality is, that’s because McAfee isn’t a traditional ESPN talent.
On Thursday, Pitaro joined CNBC’s Alex Sherman for a wide-ranging conversation regarding the state of the Worldwide Leader. And when the topic of McAfee getting to play by a different set of rules than his colleagues came up, the ESPN president pointed to the unique setup the former All-Pro punter has with the network.
“The show is licensed,” Pitaro said, referring to ESPN’s five-year, $85 million deal to lease The Pat McAfee Show. “And so we went into this partnership with Pat understanding that he has creative control over the shows. And we went into it to understanding that what is said on that show might make some people uncomfortable.”
Pitaro, however, was also quick to portray McAfee as collaborative.
“I will tell you that when there have been issues in the past, Pat has been very open to feedback,” he said. “And he has worked with us, he has heard us out. He wants to win. Every day, he wants to get better. And I very much appreciate that.”
Such issues haven’t been uncommon in the 14 months since McAfee’s deal with ESPN first began. Perhaps the most notorious example came when Aaron Rodgers seemingly implied that Jimmy Kimmel would be on the Jeffrey Epstein list during one of his weekly appearances on PMS, with other apparent dustups including McAfee referring to Caitlin Clark as a “white b****” and his attempt to weigh in on the Olympic controversy involving Algerian women’s boxer Imane Khelif. He also called former ESPN executive Norby Williamson a “rat” in a public power struggle that McAfee ended up winning as Williamson left the company.
But through it all, McAfee has more often than not presented a united front with Pitaro and ESPN content chief Burke Magnus, while also remaining adamant that he’s the one who has final say on his show. And that’s a trade ESPN is willing to make, with McAfee’s appeal to a younger demographic ultimately being worth the occasional headache for the Worldwide Leader.
“If you go back to my point before on audience expansion and finding out ways to be more relevant, Pat is the prime example,” Pitaro said. “If you look at our research, he really does resonate with younger people. And why is that? I think it’s because of his authenticity. And so with that authentic voice, oftentimes you can have issues that pop up. But when they do pop up, he has been willing to take the feedback.”
[CNBC]
