Disney and YouTube TV have been locked in a stalemate since late last week, leading The Mouse to pull all channels, including ESPN, from the OTT service. That meant die-hard college football subscribers found themselves without access to College GameDay or any ESPN network game on Saturday.
That led ESPN to push College GameDay to its recently launched app and to broadcast Pat McAfee’s X account live and for free.
On Tuesday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show, the GameDay analyst shared internal data that showed just how well it performed there. McAfee also provided some context on how the situation came to pass in the first place.
“When life throws you a situation, at some point, you got to be able to counter a little bit,” said McAfee, referring to the Disney/YTTV standoff. “I appreciate the opportunity that we had to broadcast GameDay on X.
McAfee said his initial pitch was to post the last hour of GameDay on his social media account, as he believed it would align with his negotiated right to show “clips” on his show. However, when he spoke with ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro about it, the “suit” told him to “run the whole thing.”
“[College GameDay] is a unifier. This show should be seen by people. Because we have a business disagreement. We should make it as easy as possible,” added McAfee. “It was on the ESPN app in front of the paywall. It was on X.”
McAfee’s show shared a screenshot from an email that ESPN reportedly received from X, the everything app, showing that 1.18 million unique viewers watched the live broadcast on the platform, generating 1.37 million video views, two million impressions, and 5,500 “favorites.”
Of course, it’s always hard to know how social media metrics like these are quantified and what they really mean (how long did those viewers stick around? Does it include autoplays from people scrolling by?), but it’s a sizable audience nonetheless.
“I’m happy as hell that we got the opportunity to do that,” said McAfee. “I’m very lucky to be a part of a show that obviously draws so much interest.”
It’s been a banner year for GameDay in the ratings department and, presuming they include these numbers in their usual roundup, we should see a solid overall number for this past weekend as well.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.