“Monday Night Football” will play in Springfield as the NFL, Disney and ESPN will premiere “The Simpsons Funday Football“—an animated “alternative viewing experience” for viewers of the Dec. 9 Cincinnati Bengals-Dallas Cowboys game—on Disney+ and ESPN+.
“The Simpsons Funday Football” is a real-time, animated version of the Bengals-Cowboys telecast that will air alongside the traditional broadcast set in the cartoon world of the long-running Fox adult animation series. The animated version will be created using Sony’s Beyond Sports Technology.
This is the second consecutive year ESPN, Disney and the NFL have presented a Funday Football telecast. ESPN’s first Funday Football telecast, featuring characters from Pixar’s “Toy Story,” received numerous Sports Emmys and produced record viewing on Disney+.
“The Simpsons Funday Football” alternate viewing presentation will stream on Disney+ and ESPN+ and, on mobile, with NFL+. The traditional “Monday Night Football” telecast will be available on ESPN, ABC and ESPN Deportes, alongside the Peyton and Eli Manning-hosted “Manningcast” on ESPN2. All four telecasts, which start at 8 p.m. (ET), will be available on ESPN+ and in the ESPN App.
As part of the effort, the creators of “The Simpsons” have collaborated on look, sound and feel with ESPN and the NFL.
Using Sony’s technologies, each Bengals and Cowboys player will appear as a motion-enabled, animated player. Through state-of-the-art tracking technology enabled by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Sony’s Beyond Sports, combined with Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations’ optical tracking, will let fans see every snap, run, pass, score and more from the real-life Bengals and Cowboys matchup at AT&T Stadium as it happens.
Sony’s Beyond Sports makes it possible to combine the two data sources; analyze, validate, enhance and translate them to a 3D environment; and stream them to a desired platform in real time. Optical tracking from Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations creates dynamic player and character movement, including detailed limb movement and mannerisms.
The animated game telecast will be set in Springfield’s Atoms Stadium and feature characters from the series. As part of the action, Bart Simpson will side with Joe Burrow and the Bengals while Homer aligns with Dak Prescott and the Cowboys. For most of the game, Bart and Homer will let their new Bengals and Cowboys teammates manage the action, but the father-and-son duo will select key opportunities to play offense or defense, replacing a player and joining his other 10 teammates on the field.
Surrounding the gameplay, Marge and Lisa will interview players during the game and Maggie will fly the SkyCam. “Simpsons” voiceover actors Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner and Yeardley Smith will voice several of their characters in prerecorded bits and skits.
In addition to the live game, “Simpsons” producers have written original content for the telecast that will be used before, during and after the game.
Animated segments incorporating ESPN personalities Stephen A. Smith, Peyton and Eli Manning and more will also appear in the telecast, with their segments written by “The Simpsons” production team.
Players from both teams will have prerecorded segments that include interactions with “Simpsons” characters.
“The Simpsons Funday Football” will have its own animated commentators, as ESPN’s “Simpsons” enthusiasts, 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 show and don ESPN Edge Innovation Partner’s Meta Quest Pro headsets to experience the game from Springfield, thanks to VR technology and Sony’s Beyond Sports’ Virtual Commentator Technology.
Internationally, the special presentation will be available on linear or streaming in more than 145 markets live and/or via replay. Among those, all of Latin America, including Mexico and Brazil; the Caribbean; Australia and New Zealand; The Netherlands; sub-Saharan Africa; and Canada (via domestic sports network TSN). Video-on-demand will also be available 12 hours after the live broadcast ends in these and other markets.
