After throwing characters from Marvel and Toy Story into its ongoing battle to lure young viewers to its increasingly expensive sports telecasts, Disney’s ESPN is really bringing in the big guns.
Characters from the long-running animated series “The Simpsons” will join a December 9th “Monday Night Football” game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys in an animated “alterna-cast” that will stream on Disney+, ESPN+ and NFL+ while the usual traditional broadcast airs on ESPN. In the kids’ version of the game, Bart Simpson will play at times 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.
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Longtime “Simpsons” voice actors Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner and Yeardley Smith will voice several of their characters in prerecorded bits and sketches.
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ESPN has for years experimented with concepts that they hope will bring the young viewers who might not ordinarily watch big-league sports to versions of the games designed just for them. The rationale for doing so is pretty straightforward. The leagues are eager to grow their audiences even as their games are increasingly distributed by a broader array of media partners. The networks, meanwhile, are more conscious of the sky-high rights fees they pay for the games and are turning more of their programming inventory over to content that is related to them.
Paramount Global earlier this year offered a separate broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII on the kid-centric Nickelodeon, complete with its own sportscasters, some separate TV commercials and the network’s signature green slime. Disney and ESPN, meanwhile ,have aired a broadcast of an NHL match-up that used animated figures from “Big City Greens,” and in 2021 tested a game using Marvel characters that kids could play as they watched an NBA contest between the Golden State Warriors and the New Orleans Pelicans. An animated version of a Sunday-morning game between the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars broadcast from Wembley Stadium in London last year utilized “Toy Story” characters such as Woody, Buzz, Bo Peep, Bullseye and Slinky Dog.
Despite the animation, the Simpsons will be playing in a live game. Thanks to tracking technology, the players in the cartoon version of the match will emulate every move from the real-life Bengals and Cowboys game — as they happen.
And the game will have plenty of other bespoke content. Animated versions of ESPN’s Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky will provide 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 in service of the NFL might help explain why NFL officials have for two consecutive seasons given the entertainment giant license to simulcast more “Monday Night Football” games on ABC, when they are typically supposed to air solely on ESPN.
