According to the New York Post, Aaron Rodgers is making at least seven figures a year for his weekly segment on Pat McAfee's ESPN show. Rodgers has made a weekly Monday appearance on McAfee's show every since he moved to ESPN last month. “Aaron has made over $1,000,000 with us, for sure,” McAfee told the Post via direct message.
Many of Rodgers' major offseason revelations were made on McAfee's show, both before and after it moved to ESPN. Trade rumors, the darkness retreat, his aggressive rehab plan. All of those happened on McAfee's show. Of course, there's no rule against Rodgers getting paid for media appearances. However, it takes some of the veneer off McAfee's brand. The former punter had built a reputation as a foul-mouthed frat bro who naturally attracted like-minded individuals to him. While he might still do that for his audiences, it appears his guests need a fat check to hang out with him.
McAfee Enjoys Massive First Month On ESPN
Despite this revelation, or perhaps because of it, McAfee's first month on ESPN was a booming success. The Pat McAfee Show received 242 million viewers across all platforms in its first month on the network. The weekday show, which airs in the noon broadcast slot, is simulcast across ESPN, ESPN+, and YouTube. Furthermore, the single-day peak of McAfee's first month was a live broadcast from Boulder on September 15. That show alone brought in 1.9 million viewers.
“To be rather transparent, I’m not sure any of us had any certainty of how this particular report was gonna be when this all started a month ago. We had hopes that a massive new audience provided by ESPN would give our show a chance and ESPN had hopes of us helping with the transition into the new multi platform generation of daily sports entertainment. I’m proud of my guys for their work and very thankful for ESPN’s belief in us because I do believe these numbers are telling us all that we’re off to a rather good start. We appreciate everything and everybody. We’re pumped about the continued possibilities on ESPN’s phenomenal platform. Cheers," McAfee said in a statement.
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