Pat McAfee and Stephen A. Smith's huge salaries revealed as ESPN make brutal cuts

Pat McAfee and Stephen A.Smith survived ESPN's brutal round of cuts and stand to earn mega bucks with the broadcasting giant.

The American network is arguably the biggest channel in the US for sports coverage but has got rid of a whole host of household names this week.

Former Carolina Panthers quarter-back Cam Newton, who was part of 'First Take', has been given the boot - alongside the likes of NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero and Karl Ravech, a long-standing voice on baseball.

Ryan Clark, another on-air personality, was also relieved of his duties and learned of his dismissal while on air.

In an memo sent to employees and seen by People, chairman Jimmy Pitaro said: “Over the past several months, we’ve made significant progress integrating the NFL assets that we acquired into ESPN.

“Throughout this process, we have taken the time to carefully evaluate our collective teams, resources and organizational structure to best position us for the future. As a result, we had to make some difficult decisions about job impacts that we will be communicating today.”

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McAfee, who hosts a successful self-titled show on the platform, is still staying put and it has been reported that his representatives asked for $100 million per year in new contract talks.

Last month, The Athletic said that ESPN were discussing an extension to McAfee's deal which would see him pocket $60 million per year.

According to The Sun, Smith, one of ESPN's biggest personalities and the face of 'First Take', takes home $40 million per year.

Pat McAfee addresses ESPN cuts on show with JJ Watt

Former NFL star and Burnley shareholder JJ Watt took a jab at McAfee on his show on Tuesday when called in via video chat to accept the '1st Team All-Good Guy Award' in a segment.

Calling him out, Watt said: “So slow news day over there on the ESPN airwaves, huh? I mean, besides the fact that you’re getting $100 million."

McAfee replied, telling Watt: "Don’t do that. You’re going to lose the award with what you’re doing.”

Watt wasn't letting up and continued, saying: "Did they keep anybody, or is everybody fired to pay you? I’m trying to figure it out.”

That led former WWE commentator and wrestler McAfee to respond: "That’s not funny. That is not funny. We do not like that,” the ESPN commentator said of Watt’s comments. “We do not appreciate that. That is the narrative, and I’m certainly taking it on the shins. The boys and I are very proud of the work that we have done.”

In a more serious address of what has happened at ESPN, McAfee said he and those on his show are "getting blamed".

He said: "This time, we’re getting blamed as well. Which I guess I can understand, but I mean, there’s billions and billions of dollars in these companies, and hard decisions have to get made. And we don’t like any of them, and we hope we’re an asset to the company going forward.”

It appears as though Watt's comments to McAfee did not make the edit when his part of the show as uploaded to ESPN's YouTube channel.