The NFL and CBS Sports announced Tuesday that they will be airing a “kids-centric presentation” of the Super Bowl on Nickelodeon in an effort to get younger kids interested in the game.
Los Angeles Rams quarterback Baker Mayfield (17) interviews after being selected as Nickelodeon NVP ... [+]
The Nickelodeon versions of games feature “eye-popping graphics”—things like slime-filled end zones or images of SpongeBob SquarePants between goalposts—as a way to “broaden the reach of the Super Bowl to a new legion of fans,” said chairman of CBS Sports Sean McManus.
The NFL has been trying to grow its younger audience for years by experimenting with platforms like Instagram live, Snapchat, Twitter, and TikTok and launching an NFL Content Creator Network all in a quest to become the most “youth-focused, community-driven league in the world,” Digiday reported.
Nickelodeon will also be airing a third season of NFL Slimetime—a Sports Emmy Award-nominated weekly show—and its family version of the NFL’s game on Christmas Day, Nickmas; but this will be the first time the Super Bowl has had an alternate telecast on another network.
Nate Burleson of CBS Mornings and CBS NFL Today will call the first-ever Super Bowl alternate telecast, though Nickelodeon and CBS haven’t announced who else will be part of the crew; the telecast will air in the U.S., United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
- That was the average viewer age of NFL games last season viewed on Prime Video, which is seven years younger than the average age for games aired elsewhere, according to ESPN.
Alternate telecasts have popped up and grown in popularity around major sports leagues in recent years. In 2021, ESPN launched the award-winning Manningcast—a show hosted by Eli and Peyton Manning—in which the Mannings call ten games a season in a more casual fashion than traditional broadcasts. The success of the Manningcast, formally known as Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli, led ESPN to produce a number of other alternate broadcasts, including the KayRod Cast with Michael Kay and Alex Rodriguez for Sunday Night Baseball and The Bird & Taurasi Show with Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi for the 2022 Women’s Final Four. They’re also experimenting with more comedian-led casts: In June, ESPN announced it would produce alternate casts for three Formula One World Championship races with Will Arnett as one of the presenters.