ESPN has seen the success of Pat McAfee’s Field Pass alternate telecasts during the College Football Playoffs. And now, the network is considering bringing the format to the Super Bowl.
According to a report by Michael McCarthy in Front Office Sports, a Field Pass with The Pat McAfee Show broadcast is among “ideas being considered” by the network for its upcoming Super Bowl telecast in Feb. 2027. McAfee has successfully employed his on-field broadcasts for several College Football Playoff games, including a Rose Bowl broadcast this year that drew 2.4 million viewers.
The news comes amid ESPN’s wider marketing and promotional rollout for Super Bowl LXI, the first time the Big Game will be broadcast by ESPN. Disney, of course, has aired the Super Bowl several times under the old ABC Sports branding, the last of which came in 2006.
Per McCarthy, ESPN is also considering leveraging Disney’s intellectual property to produce a kids-focused altcast. In the past, ESPN has aired a Simpsons-themed altcast of Monday Night Football, a Mickey Mouse-themed altcast during Christmas Day NBA games, and a Monsters Inc.-themed altcast for the NFL.
As Awful Announcing’s Sam Neumann wrote last week, it was rather predictable that Disney would try and utilize its vast library of IP to create an alternative broadcast of some sort. The last two Super Bowls, aired on NBC and Fox, did not feature any altcasts. However, adding a couple different broadcast options for fans will likely help boost viewership on the margins.
To be clear, ESPN has not made any formal decisions with regard to any alternative telecasts for next year’s Super Bowl. The network declined comment to FOS. But given the success of McAfee’s Field Pass for college football, and the investment the network has made into its animated altcasts in the past, it’d be surprising if one or both of these concepts didn’t appear next February.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.