The Manning brothers are back on Monday nights. Peyton Manning and Eli Manning return for their Manningcast, which is the alternative broadcast for Monday Night Football that airs on ESPN 2. The duo was on hiatus for the last three weeks as they are only scheduled to broadcast 10 Monday Night Football games this season. Peyton and Eli Manning will call the New Orleans Saints vs. Seattle Seahawks game to close out Week 7.
Tonight’s Manningcast will have a strong lineup as Marshawn Lynch and Tom Brady will hang out with the Super Bowl champion quarterbacks. Lynch and Brady will be followed by Sue Bird and Drew Brees, along with Peyton and Eli ribbing each other (as well as sharing their thoughts on the game).
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According to USA Today, Manningcast reached 800,000 in the first week. It doubled in the second Week 2 with 1.9 million viewers and held that same number in Week 3. Those are strong numbers, considering the original Monday Night Football broadcast draws close to 12 million per week. Earlier this month, Eli Manning appeared on the 10 Questions podcast and talked about doing Manningcast with Peyton
“It’s been fun. It’s very unscripted,” Eli said. “It’s just two brothers hanging out, talking football and making fun of each other. It’s just kind of how Peyton and I would really watch a football game if we were sitting on the couch…those are kind of things we would say, we tease each other, and I think it’s playing well on TV.”
Eli continued: “Going in not always having tons of things to say, just relying on the game to produce a story, it’s going to produce something you can rewind back and will be interesting to the fans. You have some things prepared if it’s a slow game, but for the most part it’s being willing to say something’s going to pop up, we’ll find something to talk about that’s interesting.”
This is likely the closest Peyton will call games for a major network. Ever since Peyton retired in 2016, he has been asked to be a lead commentator for NFL games. Peyton never ruled it out, but it looks like he’s having too much fun calling games with his brother from home.
