Bill Simmons fired back at Pat McAfee as the feud between sports media powerhouses continues.
The beef began when Simmons gave his thoughts on “The Pat McAfee Show” on his podcast, making the show sound carnivorous and disjointed.
McAfee responded by accusing Simmons of meager gambling affiliate numbers and suggesting that the Ringer founder’s best content days are behind him.
“Keep your mouth moving,” McAfee yelled.
on his own podcastSimmons took a ricochet shot at McAfee during a digression about sports TV ratings growth.
“Have you noticed how everyone’s sports ratings on TV are going up with sports ratings?” he asked rhetorically.
“We just had the Super Bowl, and it turned out that the most viewers in Super Bowl history was 123 million people. People under 25 are using every streaming service, including TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat. That seems strange because I was thinking, there are so many more choices on TV…why would the ratings go up?
“And ESPN, at the end of the month, will have ‘all-time ratings’ for ‘The Get Up’ and all their other shows. Same goes for Fox. All of their shows are over. NBA and 12 p.m. Ratings are up for everyone except for the one who replaced “SportsCenter.”
“If your ratings aren’t going up, that’s probably a bad sign.”
As you probably guessed, it was McAfee who replaced the midday edition of “SportsCenter.”
Last month, former Post columnist Andrew Marchand reported that from September to December 2023, McAfee’s audience has declined by an average of 48 percent since the start of “First Take,” compared to the same period in the previous year. It reported a 12 percent decrease.
McAfee was furious and accused ESPN executive Norby Williamson of leaking these numbers, which were relatively easy to obtain.
McAfee claimed that Williamson was trying to “interfere” with the ESPN show.
ESPN pointed out in the press release McAfee has racked up impressive numbers on YouTube, where the show is simulcast, and on social media, where highlights are stitched together and devoured like candy, totaling millions of impressions.
Digital metrics remain dominant, making it difficult to compare apples-to-apples results against terrestrial TV figures compiled by Nielsen’s neutral third party.
In any case, we are now waiting for McAfee’s inevitable counterattack.
