ESPN and Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions are continuing to expand their podcast ambitions, launching a daily show to be led by NFL Network host Kyle Brandt.
The show, Kyle Brandt’s Basement, will actually originate from a tiny studio in the Good Morning Football host’s basement, and will be available on ESPN’s YouTube channel as well as all the major podcast platforms. He will continue to host NFL Network’s morning show.
Brandt tells The Hollywood Reporter that the lighthearted name “just lends itself to some of the stuff we are going to do.”
“If there is something to complain about, I will complain about that thing for 6 minutes and bring in contributors who want to complain about it too. If there’s something to do fist pumps about, same deal,” Brandt adds. “I will be shooting baskets in the basements, I will be throwing darts, I will be playing video games, I will be lifting weights, maybe even during the show.”
The daily show will debut August 8, with a variety of segments tied to the latest NFL news, and discussion of what happened on the field (on Sundays, a new episode will post after the afternoon games but before Sunday Night Football airs).
In fact, Brandt sees the Sunday show almost as an alternative the Sunday Night Football pregame show.
“There is that period where you’ve eaten a little too much, maybe you’ve drank a bit too much, and here comes the Sunday night game, and maybe the Sunday night game is not for you, or maybe the pregame show is not for you,” he says. “You Immediately have a place to go.”
Among the recurring segments planned is a “takes on takes” bit, where Brandt and his team will scour the debate shows and morning zoos and “grab the biggest, spiciest most nuclear takes, and then pair them against each other and have a ranking system like the slam dunk contest.”
There will also be regular and recurring guests and contributors, and “awards” handed out on the Sunday show right after the games end.
Omaha entered the podcast space via its Omaha Audio division earlier this summer, teaming with ESPN for distribution, and with Caesars Sportsbook as a sponsor. Brandt’s show joins an initial slate of Omaha-produced podcasts that includes shows hosted by Rachel DeMita, Vince Carter, Cam Heyward, Katie Mox, and Cooper Manning.
Omaha also produces the “Manningcast” edition of Monday Night Football for ESPN, as well as programming like the Places franchise.
In fact, Brandt says that his podcast has its origins with the Manningcast. Brandt was part of a screen test with Peyton and Eli Manning a year ago, when the alternate broadcast was thinking about having a host join the brothers.
Brandt says he thought it went well, but when he saw the final result, he told executives that “they don’t need a host. I would only be in the way.”
But Manning and his team liked Brandt and his style.
“They came back to me and said, listen, we’d really love to be in a relationship with you, let’s build something together,” he says, with Kyle Brandt’s Basement being the end result.
