Bart Simpson may soon have a new catchphrase in his repertoire: “Don’t have a Cowboy, man.”
The Walt Disney Co., the NFL and ESPN and teaming up to debut another animated alternative broadcast of an upcoming NFL game, but this time they are going big with “ESPN’s The Simpsons Funday Football.”
On Dec. 9, Disney+ and ESPN+ will stream the Dallas Cowboys-Cincinnati Bengals matchup, but it will take place in Springfield’s Atoms Stadium, with all the players replaced by dozens of animated characters based on those from the Fox and Disney+ series The Simpsons.
It will be the second year in a row that Disney+ will stream an animated version of an NFL game, but this year’s game will be bigger on multiple fronts: For starters, it is a Monday Night Football matchup, not a Sunday morning game like last year’s Toy Story game.
And unlike last year’s game, which saw the Hollywood strikes limit the ability of Disney to utilize talent from those films, this year’s Simpsons game will feature a full roster of Simpsons voice talent participating, including Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner and Yeardley Smith. They will lend their voices to prerecorded bits and skits (written by the Simpsons production team) that will run before and during the game, including some that involve players from each team and ESPN talent like Stephen A. Smith and Peyton and Eli Manning.
The altcast will also have its own announcer booth, with animated versions of Mina Kimes, Dan Orlovsky and Drew Carter calling the action.
For parts of the game, Bart Simpson will appear on the field for the Bengals (or at least an animated version of Bart, replacing an actual Bengals player), while Homer Simpson will play for the Cowboys. Marge and Lisa will interview players during the game, while Maggie mans the SkyCam.
The Simpsons-themed altcast means that ESPN will have three different versions of that week’s Monday Night Football, with the traditional presentation led by Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on ESPN, ABC and ESPN+, the Manningcast led by Peyton and Eli Manning on ESPN2 and on ESPN+, and the Simpsons version on Disney+ and ESPN+.
The game will be the highest-profile live sports event to stream on Disney+.
The Simpsons — which Disney acquired in tis 2019 Fox deal — hits a younger male demo that the NFL wants to reach, making for a slightly more logical animated option as compared to the Toy Story effort a year ago. While new episodes of the show still run on Fox (and typically get a ratings boost when the network has a Sunday NFL doubleheader), Disney+ has also streamed several shorts and will have an exclusive holiday special in December.
