At last, even TV’s smallest viewers will have a reason to watch the Big Game.
Paramount Global‘s CBS is already scheduled to televise Super Bowl LVIII in 2024 from Las Vegas, and sister cable outlet Nickelodeon aims to get in on the scrimmage. The kids-focused outlet plans to show an alternate telecast of the pigskin classic. filled with special on-screen graphics and guest reporters — and, presumably, plenty of the network’s signature green slime, among other surprises. While the NFL has long sanctioned a Spanish-language broadcast of the annual Super Bowl, the Nickelodeon effort may well be one of the first telecasts approved by the league for a niche crowd, albeit a sizable one.
“We are unbelievably proud to partner with CBS Sports and the NFL to bring Nick’s personality and unique visual sensibility to the Super Bowl,” said Brian Robbins, President and CEO, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon; and Chief Content Officer, Movies & Kids & Family, Paramount+, in a prepared statement. The executive vowed to combine “the absolute excitement of NFL action with the creativity that can only come from Nickelodeon’s cool POV” for an audience that will consist of kids and their families.
Paramount Global did not indicate if it planned to sell a different set of commercials around the Nickelodeon telecast or if the broadcast would simply contain the same load of Super Bowl ads that will accompany the show on CBS. Paramount also intends to stream Super Bowl LVIII on Paramount+ and on mobile with NFL+. The Nickelodeon Super Bowl telecast will also be distributed internationally in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand on a delayed basis. TelevisaUnivision has Spanish-language rights to televise the annual football spectacle.
The NFL has experimented with a variety of so-called “alternate telecasts” of football games in recent years. ESPN’s “ManningCast” features football greats Peyton and Eli Manning in a loose-talking conversation that might be held at a local bar. Disney’s Freeform in 2021 once tried an NFL Wild Card game aimed at teens and young adults that had stars from its series mixing it up with then-ESPN personalities Maria Taylor and Jesse Palmer.
But the Super Bowl is the league’s biggest property, and it’s clear that, like other big content purveyors, the NFL sees a potential opportunity to expand its already large audience by creating a different version of the event for viewers who might not normally tune in to see it. The number of bespoke events created around NFL games has increased along with the price paid for the rights by Paramount, Comcast, Disney, Fox and Amazon. The NFL has already committed to a new “Black Friday” event for Amazon, which streams “Thursday Night Football,” and Jimmy Pitaro, the Disney executive who oversees ESPN, has suggested the company might show multiple telecasts of the Super Bowl when its rights to do so kick in during 2026.
Nickelodeon has already helped the NFL gain new yards. The network has broadcast kids’ versions of Wild Card games, and last year showed a “Nickmas” version of a Christmas Day game that was already airing on CBS. The Wild Card games paired announces like Nate Burleson and Noah Eagle with Nickelodeon stars such as Gabrielle Nevaeh Green. Graphics told kids about the players’ favorite ice cream flavors or explained what an interception or an extra point were.
“Our previous telecasts on Nickelodeon have been huge hits and created a new and different way to experience an NFL game,” said Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution, in a statement. “We’re excited to bring that creativity to Super Bowl LVIII and give our fans another way to enjoy one of the world’s most popular sporting events.”
Super Bowl LVII, broadcast earlier this year by Fox, was seen by a record crowd of115.1 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes, and various streaming services, and Fox Corp. secured approximately $600 million in advertising revenue. Previous Nickelodeon simulcasts of NFL games carried the same commercials as the telecast on CBS.
Details related to production and announcers for the Nickelodeon Super Bowl will be revealed at a later date.
