EXCLUSIVE: Peyton and Eli Manning are returning for a third season of ESPN’s Monday Night ManningCast and to help plug the alternate telecast, they are staging an “audition” for a third host.
In a 7-minute promo from Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions (watch it above), the gag is that the ex-quarterback brothers have been asked to bring in a fresh personality to help host the alternate telecast. Who would best fit the bill? In all, 35 personalities pull up, most of them sports figures but also entertainment notables like Reese Witherspoon, Will Arnett, Lil Wayne, Howie Mandel, Kenan Thompson and Sarah Silverman. (See the full list below.)
Like the NFL’s screenwriter-themed “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” ads, the audition promo is landing at a time when Hollywood actors (and writers) remain on strike, but the few SAG members who turn up here shot their segments before the walkout. The Season 3 video follows a one in 2022 playing on the love for Netflix series Emily in Paris that Peyton Manning declared as guest host of Saturday Night Live.
Getting talent to commit to the new promo fell to Omaha’s Nicole Solomowitz, former lead booker for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, who started getting incoming calls expressing interest once word spread about the “cattle-call” concept.
About 1.5 million people watched the ManningCast in its first two seasons, according to Nielsen. Even better than the tune-in for the NFL and ESPN, the median age of viewers has been 48 years old, which is six years younger than the median age for the audience of all NFL broadcasts.
Here is the full list of who appears in the ManningCast video: Jared Goff; Jamaar Chase (no lines); TJ Hockenson; Sean McVay; Trevor Lawrence; Justin Tucker; Justin Jefferson; Dan Campbell; Dalvin Cook; Mike McDaniel; Archie Manning; Patrick Mahomes; Cam Heyward; Frank Reich; Al Michaels; Kyle Brandt; Tom Brady; Nick Sirianni; Reese Witherspoon; Will Arnett; Sarah Silverman; Lil Wayne; Pat McAfee; Mike Tyson; Kirk Cousins; Kenan Thompson; Jim Irsay; Roger Goodell; Howie Mandel; Stephen A Smith; Livvy Dunne; Ray Lewis; Sean Payton; Christian McCaffrey; and DJ Khaled.
The Monday Night Football season starts September 11, with the main telecast on ESPN and the ManningCast on ESPN2. Omaha’s deal for the alternate telecast calls for 10 of them to air over the course of the 17-game regular season.