"The Pat McAfee Show" debut on ESPN finally has a date.
ESPN announced on Thursday, August 17 that the “The Pat McAfee Show” will be making its debut on The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) -) sports network on September 7, nearly four months since it was announced that the former NFL punter's show would be licensed by ESPN and receive a slot on its weekday schedule.
September 7 also happens to coincide with the opening day of the NFL where the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs face the Detroit Lions, though that game will be aired on NBC.
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“The Pat McAfee Show” will take the time slot from noon to 2 p.m. Eastern time, squeezing in between “First Take” at 10 a.m. and SportsCenter at 2 p.m. It will also still continue to air on YouTube.
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McAfee walked away from a four-year, $120 million deal with FanDuel TV to score his gig with ESPN, taking a reported pay cut in the process. McAfee’s deal with ESPN is reportedly about $17 million annually for five years, and does come with 230 fully-produced shows a year, though it's still a staggering figure considering the on-air talent that’s been laid off at ESPN this summer.
Outside of the show, McAfee's deal includes weekly spots as an analyst on "College Football GameDay."
McAfee's deal is also significantly larger than the reported deal of Stephen A. Smith, which is reported to total $12 million per year. Smith addressed McAfee's reported contract on "The Stephen A. Smith Show" in June and said that the contract difference doesn't phase him because he believes McAfee "deserves it."
"It's clearly more than I'm making," Smith said. "I don't give a damn. He negotiated his deal a few weeks ago, I negotiated my deal a few years ago ... the situation is not the same."
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