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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🤔 During his Wednesday appearance on The McAfee Show, WWE President Nick Khan shared an anecdote about how multiple ESPN executives, suddenly aware of McAfee’s influence following a longtime exec’s exit, started reaching out, hoping to get on the good side of the network’s new kingmaker. “You’re next,” McAfee reportedly texted one of them back (which he did not deny). Speculators, start your engines!

🏈 The Black Friday game has been a big success, so it was no surprise that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told the Wall Street Journal’s Joe Flint this week the league is considering adding a second Black Friday game, along with other scheduling changes. The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 might have something to say about that.

⛳ Golf Channel is embracing the Kai Trump bump. The granddaughter of President Donald Trump, who made her LPGA Tour debut at The Annika last month and finished last in the field, will provide “guest commentary” for the upcoming Golf Channel Games, the made-for-TV competition captained by Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler.

📡 One month after the future of Chad Powers still seemed up in the air, the show announced it had been renewed for a second season by Hulu. Not only will Chad Powers return, but Glen Powell is returning for a second season in the starring role as well. We’ll be curious to see if the show continues to explore its potentially unintended messaging about American masculinity.

⚽ A staple of soccer coverage in the United States will be joining Fox for the upcoming World Cup. Rebecca Lowe, the lead Premier League studio host for NBC Sports in the U.S., will reportedly join Fox Sports’ World Cup coverage in that same role next year, according to Andrew Marchand in The Athletic. Lowe has hosted Premier League coverage on NBC for 12 years and will continue with the company in a full-time capacity.

🚨 LEADING OFF 🚨

Everybody hates Stephen

We work in shifts at Awful Announcing, with an editor usually overseeing the site for five or six hours at a time. I was on this past Tuesday night. As I often do, I started my shift by perusing the list of potential articles that we hadn’t gotten to beforehand, and also did a lap around the sports internet to see what else might be out there.

Earlier in the day, I had come across a TikTok video from sportswriter Jeff Pearlman, in which he excoriated ESPN and SiriusXM host Stephen A. Smith for his “uninformed, uneducated” political takes. Pearlman is something of a goldmine for spicy takes, so you have to parse through them to make sure they’re worthwhile. But this one felt very much so, especially given the topic, Smith’s chastisations of U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ). I wrote that up, and it took off.

Soon after that, I read through an interview on Barrett Media with OutKick podcaster Dan Dakich, who also had some choice words for Smith. While he actually offered plenty of praise for the hard work the First Take host puts into everything he does, his description of him as “a useful idiot for the Republican Party” was just too good to pass up. I wrote that up for Wednesday morning.

As my shift was entering its final hour, I was about to enter wind-down mode when I received a sudden jolt of excitement. Max Kellerman had finally broken his silence about the way his First Take tenure ended, as well as his relationship with Smith. Ever the sweet science pugilist, Kellerman threw some well-placed jabs at the ESPN host, saying that Smith was the only show partner he ever had who never seemed interested in building a relationship. It was sports media red meat, so I made sure to get that posted before I clocked out, and it also did pretty well.

Three unrelated stories about Stephen A. Smith. Three stories based around people in the industry checking Smith over how he conducts himself and what he stands for. And three instances of people who don’t feel the need to worry about whether or not Smith uses one of his many bully pulpits to insult them back.

We write about Stephen A. Smith a lot. Some might say too much. And there’s always been a measure of negative sentiment against him. It’s built into what makes him so successful. But as he’s seemingly gotten more bitter and used his expanded showcases to lash out and punch down more frequently, it feels like things are getting even more personal. And for all the people openly dissing Smith, you don’t find too many defending him anymore.

As we watch him continue to expand his reach beyond sports into politics and other spaces, we have to wonder… does anyone actually still like Stephen A.? Not as a TV personality, per se, but as a person?

🗣️ NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

“I assure you, Bill Simmons is not happy about that. He’s an employee. He works for Spotify. They’ve done something to put his audience behind a paywall. He’s worked very hard to build that audience. He has an idea of what kind of damage that can do to an audience.” - Dan Le Batard on how Bill Simmons might feel about Spotify’s new partnership to put The Ringer podcasts on Netflix.

“…They think that ESPN’s pulling the strings. ‘We want the biggest brands.’ I promise you, we play no part in that.” - Chris Fowler refuting the notion that ESPN directly influences the CFP committee.

“I was exhausted working on a few hours of sleep watching my son play Saturday night. I had 3 hours of sleep on Sunday and had to work all day. I was suffering from exhaustion. But I’m good.” - NBC’s Rodney Harrison explaining his on-air freeze during the Sunday Night Football pregame show.

“Talk about your all-time backfires.” - WFAN’s Sal Licata on Craig Carton taking his spot after he said that would never happen.

“I like Coach Tomlin. I have a lot of respect for Coach Tomlin. But maybe it’s best for him, too. Maybe a fresh start for him is what’s best. Whether that’s in the pros, maybe go be Penn State’s head coach. You know what he would do in Penn State? He would probably go win national championships. Because he’s a great recruiter.” - Ben Roethlisberger, pondering what Steelers coach Mike Tomlin should do.

“Stop the persecution of the Christians, man. Come on.” - Robert Griffin III’s eye-cocking reasoning for why BYU might miss the CFP.

📣 THE PLAY-BY-PLAY 🎙️

CBS, Fox, and NBC all set new high-water marks during their Thanksgiving NFL games last Thursday.

CBS averaged a stunning 57.2 million viewers for the Cowboys’ 31-28 win over the Chiefs, solidifying its spot as the most-watched regular-season game in NFL history.

The Packers’ win over the Lions averaged 47.7 million viewers across Fox and Tubi, which would’ve beaten the previous regular-season record by 5 million viewers despite airing in a less-favorable window. As such, it was Fox’s most-watched regular season game on record and the most-watched early Thanksgiving Day game in history.

NBC’s Thanksgiving primetime game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens also set a record. The Bengals’ win averaged 28.4 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, and Telemundo, making it the most-watched Thanksgiving night game in NFL history.

These numbers are eye-popping, but how impressed should we be? After all, some of this is presumably due to Nielsen’s new Big Data + Panel methodology and expanded out-of-home viewing measurements, both of which have increased viewership figures for live sporting events since their implementation earlier this year.

Drew Lerner and Brendon Kleen broke down what all the numbers really mean in the latest episode of The Play-By-Play.

“It doesn't even get into the fact that some of these streaming services are measured by a totally different company,” noted Lerner during the discussion. “Adobe will do the measurements for a lot of these streamers. So any viewership on Tubi or Fox One is going to be measured by a company that's not even Nielsen, and then the figures are combined. It's a whole sh*tshow when it comes to how these are actually measured.”

Click the video above or find The Play-By-Play wherever you listen to podcasts to hear the conversation.

🎺 AROUND AA 🎺

Bill Belichick and his big football brain were supposed to transform the North Carolina football program into a powerhouse. However, the Tar Heels looked absolutely lifeless at times during their recent 4-8 season. How could a coaching legend field a team that looked like they were running plays they had heard described but had never actually seen? Fans were frustrated. Haters were delighted.

So what was it like to be on the ground here for the most unique season of college football this state has ever seen? Demetri Ravanos reached out to a few colleagues who experienced it in different ways.

“If you talk to actual people – not the chronically online – they think [GM Michael] Lombardi is the worst and actually want him and Bill to be embarrassed,” said Joe Ovies, one half of the popular local podcast Ovies & Giglio. “That’s evident in the amount of people trying to unload tickets this season for like half price and the real discussion about season ticket sales for next year tanking.”

Click to read the complete account from several local media members tapped into the UNC football program, and what it was like to cover this disappointing season.

️‍️🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

The importance of the NFL lead-in

CBS announced that Duke vs. Arkansas on Thanksgiving was the most-watched college basketball game since February 1993, averaging 6.813 million viewers in primetime.

But the devil is in the details of how historic that number actually is.

The game set a record thanks entirely to the NFL. Chiefs–Cowboys, which immediately preceded it on CBS, was the most-watched regular-season NFL game ever, averaging 57.2 million viewers.

Breaking down Duke–Arkansas viewership by half hour makes this quite evident. Viewership peaked at 27.414 million average viewers between 8 and 8:30 p.m., right after the football game ended. In the following half hour, average viewership fell 68% to 8.846 million. By the end of the game, between 10 and 10:30 p.m., it had dropped further to 3.813 million.

But even 3.813 million is a good number for college basketball. Outside of Thanksgiving, Auburn–Alabama on ESPN was the most-watched college basketball game last season, averaging 2.760 million viewers.

That highlights just how vital NFL lead-ins are for college basketball viewership. Even if more than 80% of the audience disappears — as it did in this case — the lead-in is so large that it still makes the boost worthwhile.

College basketball lead-outs to the NFL are certainly something that is here to stay. How creative networks get remains to be seen. Would NBC consider adding a college basketball lead-out to its primetime Thanksgiving game? It sounds crazy, but last year FOX aired an 11 p.m. college football game between Rutgers and USC after Game 1 of the World Series. More people watched the NFL on NBC during Thanksgiving this year than watched Game 7 of the Blue Jays–Dodgers World Series.

Thanks to Manny Soloway, who runs the ever-valuable TV Media Blog Substack, for this one.