CBS blames audience for Mike Carey's exit

NEW YORK, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- One network is blaming football fans for the departure of former NFL referee Mike Carey from its broadcast crew.

CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus blamed viewers' impatience for Carey's early exit from the network.

"It takes some people a while to develop into good broadcasters, and the viewing public was not as patient as I thought they might be," McManus said, according to Neil Best of Newsday.

Carey spent two years with CBS. FOX employees Mike Pereira in a similar, more successful, role. The network released Carey in June. He was an NFL official for 23 years.

McManus said that if CBS finds someone, it would "reinstitute that role."

USA TODAY's For the Win tracked Carey's predictions on the results of replay reviews. It said that Carey correctly called the result of 36-of-44 reviews. He did not give his opinion on four cases. That mark was good for a 90 percent clip.

"The issue that I didn't anticipate was the reaction he would get when he disagreed with the official," McManus told Best. "For some reason it's OK for Jim Nantz or Joe Buck or Cris Collinsworth or Jon Gruden to disagree with an official, but when Mike disagreed, with all the years of experience he had, he used to get criticized, pretty roundly."