Let's Never Do Two Games At Once For ManningCast Again
Last night's Monday Night Football games were absolutely electric but you wouldn't have known if you watched ESPN2's ManningCast.
With two Monday Night Football games happening for the first time this season last night, ESPN decided to have the Manning brothers try to cover both games at the same time.
It didn't work.
Whereas the ManningCast has found success in its chaotic, go-with-the-flow, casual football fan conversation that viewers increasingly are enjoying, having two games going simultaneously proved to be too much for them, the network, and viewers. And the fact that both the Titans' and Giants' victories had significant playoff implications - I wouldn't be surprised if we see the ratings take a hit as nobody knew what was happening during Monday's crazy fourth quarter.
MANNINGCAST TRIED COVERING BOTH MONDAY NIGHT GAMES
Football fans would have loved to have seen Titans running back Derryck Henry bulldoze his way into the endzone with two minutes left in the game to help start Tennessee's historic 13-point deficit come from behind win.
However, while that was happening ESPN2's ManningCast had the Giants-Packers game on the screen as the Giants were also making a late run under the guise of Tommy 'Cutlets' Devito.
Even Peyton Manning had no idea what was happening as he suddenly shouted out "Breaking news here, oh my gosh, I don't know what just happened in the Titans-Dolphins game but it looked like an option to the left... that was a fumble by Derrck Henry. I'm not sure you want to see it, Kirk it's not pretty!"
You know who would have loved to have seen it?
Football fans!
I've been an advocate for the ManningCast alt-casts and regularly write and post about how much I prefer their broadcast. However, that's when I still know what's happening in the game because we are all watching the same thing. But when you had two different things going on and Peyton and Eli trying to not only have to FIGURE OUT but then EXPLAIN to the audience - let's just say the experiment didn't work.
With the NFL having two games on the same night, Disney decided to have ABC cover the Packers - Giants game while ESPN had the Titans - Dolphins. The ManningCast on ESPN2 was expected to do both.
WHAT ESPN SHOULD HAVE DONE
As times throughout the ManningCast, ESPN2 would show a double box of each game. Think of it like the NFL Network RedZone where you can see multiple things at once.
Yet, for some reason the network would only put up both games for a short period of time and then pull them. I'm not sure if it was a broadcast rights issue but this ultimately backfired tremendously as fans missed out on some of the best final two minutes of football seen in years.
It's not the Manning's fault - they were working with a situation that even experienced broadcasters would have a difficult time with.
In fact I don't think we should blame Peyton and Eli. Let's blame Roger Goodell because that's always more fun. Hey Rog - why would you have the NFL have both games start at the same time?