The hit "ManningCast" show will return for a third season in 2023 to give NFL fans another up-close view of brothers Peyton and Eli Manning bantering during live games.
ESPN's alternative "Monday Night Football" TV broadcast features the former quarterbacks interspersing analysis of on-field action with celebrity interviews and comedic back-and-forth. Often, this boils down to good-natured ribbing between a pair of Super Bowl winners.
One example came last year as producers put an old clip of Eli fumbling on the screen. Peyton jokingly told guest and Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, "Believe it or not, Eli, he's so slow, they actually called that a football move that he took."
With ESPN still airing a traditional "Monday Night Football" broadcast on its main channel, the "ManningCast" is supposed to provide a light-hearted view of the NFL.
"Peyton and Eli will bring a different approach, delving into conversation about broader, big-picture topics while also honing in on the game, much like fans do when watching with their family and friends," said ESPN executive Jimmy Pitaro when the "ManningCast" was first announced.
However, the Manning brothers have sometimes faced criticism for neglecting the on-field action, their mischief taking over the show. Ex-NFL quarterback and current radio host Boomer Esiason once labelled it "awkward" and "distracting."
Esiason changed his tune somewhat after accepting an invite to appear on the "ManningCast" in 2022. Seeing the inner workings of the production helped him empathise with the difficulties of putting everything together. Still, he maintained the show could distract some viewers.
"It was a lot of fun last night," Esiason said after his guest spot. "Now I know why it can tend to be a little choppy because there's about a half a second delay between the conversation you're having with both Eli and Peyton and then on top of it, you're trying to do a game while you're trying to answer questions and you've got a monitor about the size of an iPad.
"On half that monitor, you see the three-box of the three people apart of the ManningCast, and on the other half of the monitor, you see the football game. So you could barely see it.
"Meanwhile, Peyton and Eli are totally hooked up. Peyton out in Denver, Eli here in New Jersey. They have the big monitors and everything. They're trying to do a game while talking to you. It was a lot of fun, I gotta say. It is distracting, I'll stay with that. I didn't barely see any of the game."
ESPN enlisted the Manning brothers, who run Omaha Productions, to put on the show starting in 2021. The company didn't know what to expect.
"I said, 'Eli and I can watch football together from our house,'" Peyton told the LA Times. "So ESPN said, 'Let's do it.'"
Immediately, viewers took to the casual style. It helped that the ex-players were hugely popular and carried relevant experience, having appeared on talk shows and "Saturday Night Live" before.
The "ManningCast" deal reportedly began as a three-year project, with 2023 the last season of the initial contract. But ESPN is expected to continue it far into the future, meaning many more nationally televised family roasts down the road.
