John Kosner Spoke with Mike Gunzelman of OutKick About the Kelce Brothers’ Media Appeal
Original Article: OutKick, by Mike Gunzelman, January 25th, 2024
Move over, Mannings, you’re about to have competition.
The star NFL brothers are prime to take over the sports and entertainment world and you can be sure that the suits are noticing it – in fact, I predict that it may even lead to Travis retiring from the Chiefs sooner than later knowing full well that he would have a career in media the very next day.
“I don’t know if and when either or both will formally retire but once both do, they are a natural TV and media attraction,” former EVP of digital and print media for ESPN John Kosner told OutKick. “They are All-Pro performers who are smart, fun and authentic, appealing to everyone, just like the Mannings and Charles Barkley. That is super hard to find and extremely valuable in our polarized country.”
Which networks are the frontrunners?
“I really like Amazon as a target [for the brothers] including some sort of shopping angle and maybe also featuring their mom,” Kosner added.
ENTER: THE ALT-CAST
A year ago, I wrote that television executives were going to oversaturate and run with the alt-casts until there were too many and it would eventually ruin their uniqueness. I likened it to the rise of podcasts where anyone and everyone seems to have one. It’s already happening; now we have people like Kevin Hart having a weekly ESPN2 NBA alt-cast that nobody whatsoever cares about.
“But, unless you’re Pat McAfee, Charles Barkley – or as I’ve advocated for: Travis and Jason Kelce, there are few personalities that can make the alt cast work [as well as the ManningCast and KayRodCast featuring Michael Kay and Alex Rodriguez.],” I wrote back in April of 2023.
I was right.
Alt-casts only work if the PEOPLE ON THEM mesh and there are no two better candidates than Travis and Jason Kelce. They are absolutely buzzing and are a TV exec’s wet dream for the dollar signs and ratings that they would bring in.
Hell, they already are a proven concept.
The Kelce “New Heights” podcast is frequently the most downloaded sports podcast in the world.
You add the Taylor Swift aspect as well as Jason Kelce “conveniently” ripping his shirt off and being a DUDE while crushing beers when every sports fan was watching during that Chiefs-Bills game?
Jason alone just guaranteed himself a career in sports media for years from his antics at Sunday’s game.
With Netflix now entering the live sports broadcast business with a wild $5 billion purchase of the WWE’s Monday Night Raw rights, the competition is only growing for who can snag the Kelce brothers.
Eric Bischoff, who later went to the WWE and became a WWE Hall of Famer knows a thing or two about developing and selling characters on television. He created and was part of the famous nWo wrestling stable led by Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash which single-handedly transformed television ratings and the sports entertainment industry still to this day.
He believes the Kelce brothers have all the intangibles to become superstars in front of the camera.
“They are the Mannings with character version 2.0. My bet is their agents are already in negotiations,” Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) Eric Bischoff told me.
Former ESPN executive John Kosner, who helped develop the talents of Bill Simmons, Adrian Wojnarowski, and Darren Rovell while at ESPN, agrees with Bischoff.
“I bet the Kelce combo is atop the draft boards at every network and sports media company including the streaming companies. I could see TV networks pitching them for both NFL and morning show work as well.”