Peyton and Eli Manning won a lot of games on the football field. Somehow they seem equally successful off of it. Today, they host ManningCast, a sports commentary program where the retired QB brothers watch a live NFL game and share their expertise as the action unfolds.
ManningCast is produced by Peyton Manning’s production company, Omaha Productions, and it’s already become one of the most popular sports commentary shows in the country, averaging 1.6 million viewers per week in its first 3 seasons.
Part of ManningCast’s appeal is that it’s not just about football. Peyton and Eli welcome viewers into their respective man caves where they chat about whatever is on their mind. They also invite their celebrity friends – who also love football – to join the fun. This week, SNL veteran and comedy legend Will Ferrell joined the brothers to pal around and (attempt) to comment on the Seahawks-Jets game.
Wackiness ensued as Ferrell tried his hand at sportscasting and Eli Manning did his best Ferrell impressions from SNL and Wedding Crashers.
Payton & Eli Yuk it Up with Will Ferrell
ManningCast viewers have come to expect more than a few laughs fueled by Peyton and Eli’s sibling-rivalry-driven banter, but they had no idea what they were in for when Will Ferrell popped onto their screens last Monday night. Ferrell joined Peyton and Eli during the second quarter of the game between the Seattle Seahawks and New York Jets, and it didn’t take long for the guys to get goofy.
It began when Peyton and Eli were commenting on the performance of Seahawk’s wide receiver “DK” Metcalf. Eli Manning asked Ferrell if Coach Carroll asked for the comedian’s advice regarding DK’s fitness regimen.
Eli then put up a side-by-side image comparing DK’s shirtless physique with Ferrell in a Speedo swimming suit.
Ferrell played along, “Well, that’s before I started eating large amounts of candy,” he joked. “Because now, once I got on the program, DK and I are almost identical.”
Next, Eli pulled out one of Ferrell’s most iconic props from his days on Saturday Night Live—a cowbell. One of his best-known sketches features Christopher Walken demanding ‘more cowbell’ from Ferrell during the recording of Blue Öyster Cult’s hit song “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”
“You know what we need?” Eli asked during a brief moment of dead air before whipping out a cowbell and starting to play.
“That is the saddest cowbell I’ve ever heard right there,” Ferrell laughed. “It’s a very sad little cowbell.”
Apparently, Eli couldn’t satisfy Ferrell’s need for more cowbell. And that wasn’t the end of the QB’s ribbing from the comedian and his brother Peyton.
Payton Manning pulled up a past clip of Eli imitating one of Ferrell’s lines from the movie Wedding Crashers and asked Ferrell to rate his performance.
“Will, you’ve impersonated a lot of famous people, but I actually have to show you a Will Ferrell
impression when we have a chance here,” Peyton said. “I want you to get your thoughts on this. At this point, I’m like 80% sure that Eli currently lives at home with his parents.”
“Ma, meatloaf!” Eli shouts in the clip.
Ferrell’s rating out of 10? “Well, I think it’s probably about, I’ll say a 1.1.,” he mused.
Lucky for Eli, Ferrell proceeded to give him some acting lessons. “There’s some rage behind it. This guy had some rage, so it was more like, ‘Ma, meatloaf!’” Ferrell screamed.
The two exchanged shouts of “Ma, meatloaf!” until Eli gave up—but not before earning a laugh: “My mom’s starting to come down here,” he said, implying he lives in his mom’s basement. “She’s freaking out. She doesn’t know what’s going on.”
Why Having Will Ferrell on ManningCast is a Big Deal
Why would the world’s most talented Quarterback bros invite a comedian onto their sportscast? Peyton Manning and Omaha Productions are banking on the idea that fans want more than basic sports analysis. They want a dynamic experience that blends opinion, pop culture, humor, music, and big personalities.
And personalities don’t get much bigger than Will Ferrell. Plus, tossing the comedian into the mix expands pro football’s appeal to a new base of fans. This may be why ManningCast attracts a younger demographic than other sports commentary programs.
Ferrell isn’t a football expert—and Peyton & Eli don’t care. Everyone is just there to have a good time watching football—and viewers feel the same way.
A lot of viewers, in fact. And they’re not just watching ManningCast. At just two years young, Omaha Productions is booming. It’s already producing a slate of programming for ESPN, the NFL, and Netflix (including the summer hit show Quarterback) as well as over a dozen podcasts.
Omaha Productions isn’t just diverging from the sports media norm—it’s blazing a trail into the future of sportscasting.
Omaha Productions is Changing the Way Sports Fans Engage
ManningCast’s divergence from analytical sportscasting to more opinionated, personality-based entertainment is part of a trend in sports media that started two decades ago.
In the early 2000s former ESPN Vice President and Fox Sports President Jamie Horowitz, found massive success with daily talk shows that celebrated the opinion of the hosts. Most notably, he created opinion and debate shows like First Take, Numbers Never Lie, Undisputed, and The Herd with Colin Cowherd. All of those shows empowered different individuals – everyone from Colin Cowherd to Stephen A Smith to Shannon Sharpe.
Horowitz who teammed up with Manning to launch Omaha Productions in December of 2020 used lessons learned from those daily shows to influence the ManningCast. And the ManningCast continues to resonate because the two brothers freely discuss whatever is on their minds with whomever is on the show that night.
With Jamie Horowitz’s industry-defining programming and Peyton Manning’s pull with major sports networks and the NFL, the ManningCast (and Omaha Productions) seems primed for a continuous rise.
The ManningCast airs on ESPN2 and ESPN+ on select Monday night NFL games.
