When Disney/ESPN made Pat McAfee among its highest-paid TV personalities last year with a reported $17 million annual salary, it probably didn’t anticipate the hire leading to a massive feud with Jimmy Kimmel.
But that’s what happens when you allow McAfee to platform Aaron Rodgers’ conspiracies on live TV.
In a Tuesday appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers baselessly linked Kimmel — who hosts the Disney-owned Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC — to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. A furious Kimmel tweeted a response to Rodgers, and he couldn’t have been happy about how McAfee handled the topic.
Come Wednesday, McAfee — who decided to wear a sleeved shirt to work — tried to address Rodgers’ remarks. McAfee mentioned that his phone was blowing up after the show. But despite the presumed heat from Disney and ESPN brass, McAfee dismissed the remarks as part of the free-wheeling nature of his show. (Warning: Some NSFW language)
"I can see exactly why Jimmy Kimmel felt the way he felt, especially with his position. But I think Aaron was just trying to talk shit."
Pat McAfee opens his show by responding to the fallout and threats of legal action coming out of his Tuesday interview with Aaron Rodgers pic.twitter.com/UCv1yAp62Z
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 3, 2024
He essentially said that Rodgers was just trying to talk smack to Kimmel after Kimmel had joked about Rodgers on his late-night show. But there’s a big difference between making fun of a conspiracy theorist and accusing someone of being a pedophile.
It’s hard to imagine that ESPN will be pleased with how McAfee addressed the situation. We’ll have to see if Rodgers is back with his regular appearance next Tuesday.