A Monday Night Football matchup later this season will feature two familiar characters, Bart and Homer Simpson, in the decidedly unfamiliar context of a live NFL football game.
The alternate, animated telecast of the December 9 showdown between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys will feature a fully immersive Simpsons experience conveying the actual on-field action. It will be brought to life by writers and voice talent from the long-running Fox animated series, whose characters and library became the property of ESPN parent Disney in 2019. The setting for the telecast, streaming on Disney+ and ESPN+ and on mobile via NFL+, will be Atoms Stadium in the show’s fictional home base of Springfield.
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It will be the second annual “Funday Football” initiative by ESPN, Disney and the NFL, following last year’s debut edition set in Andy’s bedroom in Pixar’s Toy Story franchise. Unlike a year ago, however, strikes by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA will not limit talent participation. Longtime Simpsons voices Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner and Yeardley Smith will voice several of their characters in prerecorded bits and skits. Outside of the live plays, Simpsons producers have written original material to be used before, during and after the game.
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The strategic goal of the alternate broadcast is to expand the game’s reach. A similar effort, the Manningcast, has helped grow the audience for the games through two-plus seasons.
Homer, aligned with the Cowboys, and Bart with the Bengals will rally their supporters who will join them on their respective sidelines throughout the matchup. Lisa, Krusty, Nelson, Milhouse and Ralph will be with Bart; while Carl, Barney, Lenny and Moe will be with Homer.
Internationally, the special presentation will be available on linear or streaming in more than 145 markets live and/or via replay. Among those, all Latin America including Mexico and Brazil, the Caribbean, Australia & New Zealand, Netherlands, Sub-Saharan Africa and in Canada via TSN. Video on demand will also be available 12 hours after the live broadcast ends in these and other markets.
Every participant in the game will appear as a motion-enabled, animated player. Through state-of-the-art tracking technology enabled by NFL’s Next Gen Stats along with Sony’s Beyond Sports with Hawk-Eye Innovations optical tracking, viewers will see a rendition of everything that happens in real life at AT&T Stadium as it happens.
Marge and Lisa Simpson will interview players during the game and Maggie will fly the SkyCam, while popular characters, show references and aesthetics “will bring a real Sunday-night-with-the-Simpsons feel,” a press release said. The Simpsons and ESPN: Animated segments will also incorporate ESPN personalities like Stephen A. Smith, Peyton and Eli Manning and others, with their segments written by the Simpsons creators.
ESPN studio analysts and hosts Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky will provide football strategy discussion, with Drew Carter calling the game action. Kimes, Orlovsky and Carter will be animated in the style of The Simpsons.
The first-of-its-kind 2023 Toy Story outing, ESPN’s first fully animated NFL telecast, won three Sports Emmys and delivered the biggest live event to that point on Disney+, based on peak concurrency.