ESPN to Air ‘Manningcast’ Version of PGA Championship with Joe Buck
ESPN to Air ‘Manningcast’ Version of PGA Championship with Joe Buck
While Joe Buck left Fox to become the play-by-play voice of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” it appears that his first on-air gig for the worldwide leader won’t be covering football and it won’t be as a play-by-play man, either. Instead, the legendary broadcaster will be leading an alternate broadcast of this month’s PGA Championship from May 19-22 on both ESPN and ESPN+.
Modeled after ESPN’s wildly popular Manningcast coverage of “MNF” games, Buck will be joined by former PGA caddie and ESPN senior golf analyst Michael Collins for the four-day event that will bring a more conversational approach to the normally buttoned-up golf coverage. Produced by Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, “PGA Championship with Joe Buck & Michael Collins” will complement ESPN’s traditional broadcast of golf’s second major of the season.
Collins — who hosts “America’s Caddie” for ESPN’s streaming service — and Buck — who has previously covered golf for Fox — will bring their insight, humor, and commentary to the PGA Championship while also welcoming in a whole host of high profile guests from the worlds of golf and sports at large. Peyton and Eli Manning will unsurprisingly be a part of the festivities, as will Buck’s longtime broadcasting partner Troy Aikman, Buffalo Bills’ quarterback Josh Allen, NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, PGA legend Fred Couples, actor Jon Hamm, ESPN favorite Doris Burke, and others to be announced in the coming weeks.
“We loved doing Monday Night Football with ESPN and the entire Omaha team has been looking forward to producing alternate telecasts that celebrate other sports,” Peyton Manning said. “As one of golf’s majors, the PGA Championship is a perfect place to do our first one for golf and we look forward to working with Joe, Michael and everyone in ESPN’s golf team.”
The alternate broadcast will air for four hours during each day of the tournament. On Thursday and Friday, May 19 and 20, the special event will air from 1-2 p.m. ET on ESPN as a lead-in to tournament play and will then move to ESPN+ from 2-5 p.m. ET.
Then on Saturday and Sunday, Buck and Collins will host from 9-10 a.m. on ESPN before swapping platforms with live coverage of the tournament and moving to ESPN+ from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET.
Earlier this year, ESPN announced that they would work with Omaha Productions to produce alternate broadcasts beyond the Manningcast for golf, UFC, college football, and more, so get used to this more laidback, freewheeling approach to sports.
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