Dan Patrick: Forget Ratings, It's All About Going Viral

In a candid interview on Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take, legendary broadcaster Dan Patrick delivered a scathing critique of the state of sports talk radio in 2025, declaring its traditional ratings system broken and irrelevant.

With decades of experience in the industry, Patrick’s assessment carries weight, highlighting a seismic shift in how success is measured in sports media—a shift that legacy platforms like terrestrial radio are struggling to navigate.

Patrick didn’t mince words when discussing the disconnect between traditional radio metrics and the modern media landscape. “I never really looked at, like, [Pat] McAfee with YouTube,” he said. 

“Those numbers, that’s really all that matters. I’ve been with terrestrial radio all my life, and you keep thinking of those ratings, those ratings, those ratings. Now? Nobody cares about that. They care about social media, what went viral, the number of people watching clips.” 

He pointed to the success of shows like Pardon My Take and The Pat McAfee Show, which have mastered the art of generating viral moments and dominating platforms like YouTube and TikTok. In today’s media ecosystem, it’s not about how many listeners tune in live—it’s about how many share, comment, and engage with content afterward.

The shift from audience size to shareability has left traditional sports radio in a precarious position. The old ratings model, often opaque and rooted in outdated methodologies, no longer reflects what drives influence or revenue. Patrick admitted to feeling lost in this new reality, unsure of how his own show is evaluated. 

“I still don’t even know,” he said. “They just tell me. One day they’re going to say, ‘Hey, come here, bring your playbook, you’re done.’ And it could be something random like that. We’ll be in a market and they’ll go, ‘You’re killing it, but they want to go local.’ And I’ll go, ‘What does that mean?’ So then you’re not an affiliate in Portland, Maine. Meanwhile, you thought you were doing great in Portland, Maine.”

Patrick’s frustration extends beyond the metrics themselves to the people interpreting them. He took aim at radio executives and decision-makers, many of whom, he argued, lack the hands-on experience to understand the realities of the job. 

“I don’t like being beholden to that because, face it, you have a lot of people who are in radio who [are] your bosses, who probably haven’t done radio,” he said. “And I think it’s unfair, sometimes, when they project what you should be doing or, why aren’t you doing, or why didn’t you ask? When you’re in the chair and there are live bullets, it’s just different.” 

For Patrick, the disconnect between talent and management is stark—decisions made in boardrooms by those who’ve never had to fill dead air or handle the unpredictability of live broadcasting often feel arbitrary and out of touch.