After throwing characters from Marvel and Toy Story into the ongoing battle to lure young viewers to increasingly expensive sports broadcasts, Disney’s ESPN is really bringing in the big guns.
Characters from the long-running animated series “The Simpsons” will take part in a Dec. 9 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys in an animated “alterna-cast” streaming on Disney+, ESPN+ and NFL+ while the usual traditional broadcasts air. on ESPN. In the children’s version of the game, Bart Simpson will occasionally play for the Bengals and his father, Homer, will fight for the Cowboys, while sister Lisa and mother Marge will interview players while baby Maggie operates the sky-cam.
Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner and Yeardley Smith will voice some of their characters in pre-recorded bits and sketches.
ESPN has been experimenting for years with concepts that they hope will bring young viewers who don’t normally watch top sports to versions of the games designed just for them. The reason for doing this is quite simple. The leagues are eager to grow their audiences, even as their games are increasingly distributed by a wider range of media partners. The networks, meanwhile, are more aware of the sky-high rights fees they pay for the games and are devoting a larger portion of their programming inventory to content related to them.
Paramount Global offered a separate broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII on the kid-targeted Nickelodeon earlier this year, complete with in-house sportscasters, some quirky TV commercials and the network’s signature green slime. Disney and ESPN, meanwhile, aired an NHL match using animated ‘Big City Greens’ figures, and in 2021 tested a game featuring Marvel characters for kids to play while watching an NBA game between the Golden State watched. Warriors and the New Orleans Pelicans. An animated version of a Sunday morning game between the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars, broadcast last year from Wembley Stadium in London, used “Toy Story” characters such as Woody, Buzz, Bo Peep, Bullseye and Slinky Dog.
Despite the animation, the Simpsons are playing a live game. Tracking technology allows the players in the cartoon version of the game to recreate every move from the real Bengals and Cowboys game as it happens.
And the game will feature plenty of other custom content. Animated versions from ESPN’s Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky will spark discussion, while Drew Carter will call the game. Producers of “TRhe Simpsons” have written original vignettes that will be used before, during and after the event, along with the series’ popular theme music and some of its jingles. Animated segments featuring Stephen A. Smith and Peyton and Eli Manning will also be used.
Disney’s willingness to put some of its best-known properties at the service of the NFL could help explain why, for two consecutive seasons, NFL officials have licensed the entertainment giant to simulate more “Monday Night Football” games on ABC, while that should normally happen. aired exclusively on ESPN.