Pat McAfee accuses senior ESPN executive of sabotage
Pat McAfee isn't mincing words when it comes to his opinion of a senior executive at ESPN, the company that serves as both his partner and employer.
On Friday, the brash former punter turned media personality accused Norby Williamson, the company's studio and production boss, of trying to sabotage "The Pat McAfee Show." In the show's exclusive final hour, McAfee said that there were internal forces at ESPN hoping to bring his show down, naming Williamson directly.
As transcribed by Awful Announcing's Brendon Kleen:
“There are folks actively trying to sabotage us from within ESPN. More specifically," McAfee said. "I believe Norby Williamson is the guy attempting to sabotage our program.”
McAfee went further, accusing Williamson of leaking negative stories to the press, including the New York Times, Washington Post and New York Post. The latter outlet seemed to have drawn his ire as it relates to a story discussing how his show has not been performing as well as expected when it comes to Nielsen ratings. Per Kleen's transcription:
“Somebody tried to get ahead of our actual ratings release with wrong numbers 12 hours beforehand," McAfee said. "That’s a sabotage attempt, and it’s been happening … from some people who didn’t necessarily love the old addition of The Pat McAfee Show to the ESPN family.”
Media companies such as ESPN employ dozens of analysts whose sole job is to dissect Nielsen ratings and other metrics – numbers that even the most experienced TV producers such as Williamson might not see (this writer used to be one). Analysts can see how shows and events are trending against any time period and competitor they choose. No matter what McAfee believes, data doesn't need to be leaked for ESPN to know how a show is performing over a given period of time thanks to the work done by his coworkers.
It's debatable whether Williamson was the only person to get hold of the ratings data ahead of the aforementioned New York Post report, but he could certainly demand to be ahead of most others at his company. There's no question, however, that McAfee dislikes Williamson a great deal, as he said in the clip.
That said, Williamson has been singled out by previous ESPNers in the past for alleged agendas. With the Aaron Rodgers/Jimmy Kimmel controversy still on the minds of many, this accusation could end up being more detrimental to McAfee's relationship with ESPN than anything Rodgers says or does.
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