Dan Le Batard To Go Head-To-Head With Pat McAfee on Peacock, Going to Get Crushed

Last year, Dan Le Batard whined about ESPN giving Pat McAfee opportunities that it never gave him. Le Batard blamed ESPN for holding him back on account of his politics.  

"ESPN chose that [as in McAfee] over Bomani, me and Sarah [Spain] and whatever it is that we were doing that doesn’t fit with the politics of whatever McAfee’s doing, which is not going to go near Trump and is going to rah rah the hell out of football very well all season," said Le Batard.

"What is funny about what just happened with McAfee is I don’t know if it’s so because I can’t I can’t go back in time and know if it would actually be possible to have my politics and be what that is, because it’s inescapable that post-George Floyd, what happened there is they told me focus groups showed no politics with this and that show’s not going to have politics," he added.

Well, Le Batard now has a chance to prove ESPN wrong.

On Monday, Le Batard announced an agreement with NBC's Peacock streaming service to air The Dan Le Batard Show on weekdays from 12 pm to 3 pm ET, following Dan Patrick.

The Le Batard Show will air head-to-head with the Pat McAfee Show for three hours a day. 

Of course, McAfee's reach on ESPN television (from 12 to 2 pm) is stronger than what Peacock offers Le Batard. Heck, Bomani Jones on ESPN could beat Charles Barkley on Peacock. 

That said, ESPN signed McAfee for his impact digitally on YouTube, where his show still airs in its entirety. So, if Le Batard is as popular as he and his minions claim, he should be able to top McAfee online between YouTube and Peacock. He will air on both platforms for free.

In fact, Le Batard has a significant advantage online over McAfee, given that the bulk of the latter's viewers watch him on linear television.

Granted, Le Batard isn't doing so well on YouTube. 

Last Friday, McAfee's program drew 432,000 views on the platform. Le Batard's show drew 23,000. The gap was closer on Thursday – technically. McAfee outdrew Le Batard by 345,000 to 24,000.

McAfee's highest-rated episode on YouTube reached 2.3 million views. Le Batard's highest was 146,000.

We are starting to think "politics" wasn't the reason ESPN chose McAfee over Le Batard, what about you?

Numbers aside, Le Batard could still book better guests than McAfee, no? Sure. 

McAfee announced that Bill Belichick, Nick Saban, and (likely) Aaron Rodgers would join his show weekly during the football season. Impressive. Though perhaps no match for Le Batard regulars Jemele Hill, Katie Nolan, and Rex Chapman.

Further, there are some topics on which McAfee just can't compete with Le Batard. 

For example, McAfee is unlikely to replicate Le Batard in defending Deadspin against the nine-year-old Chiefs fan who it falsely framed for wearing blackface.

We don't expect McAfee to complain about domestic violence on-air while employing Howard Bryant, a Le Batard employee who was arrested for choking his wife.

At least Le Batard has Mina Kimes' back.

"Because of the politics of the day, Stugotz, Mina Kimes gets weaponized," said Le Batard last September. "OutKick–good god almighty, shit stain, you have birthed an army of shit stains, man, when you go after that woman, not having any earthly idea how hard it is overcoming all the bullshit in this industry by knuckle draggers at the executive level and on social media."

McAfee ought to be shaking in his boots about the new competition: