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Who lives in a pineapple under the sea and is set to appear in the Super Bowl this year? SpongeBob SquarePants! The NFL and CBS Sports have announced that for the first time ever, the Super Bowl will have an alternate telecast this season — a kid-centric version on Nickelodeon, in addition to the regular telecast broadcast on CBS.
President and CEO of Paramount Bob Bakish said in a statement, “This will be a historic Super Bowl in Las Vegas, and we’re thrilled to partner with the NFL to bring the game to the whole family with the first-ever alternate telecast of the Super Bowl. In year one of our new long-term deal with the NFL, we continue to maximize our expanded distribution rights and further unlock the value of the League through the demonstrated power of our multiplatform portfolio across CBS, Paramount+ and Nickelodeon.”
NFL media executive vice president Hans Schroeder added, “We’re thrilled to partner with CBS Sports and Nickelodeon to present the first alternate telecast of the Super Bowl. Our previous telecasts on Nickelodeon have been huge hits and created a new and different way to experience an NFL game. We’re excited to bring that creativity to Super Bowl 58 and give our fans another way to enjoy one of the world’s most popular sporting events.”
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon CDO Brian Robbins said, “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. As we’ve shown with our prior zeitgeist-busting Wild Card and Nickmas coverage, combining the absolute excitement of NFL action with the creativity that can only come from Nickelodeon’s cool POV makes for a must-see event for kids and families everywhere.”
This is the fourth season that CBS and Nickelodeon have partnered to do a broadcast — though this is the first season Nickelodeon will host multiple broadcasts (they will also televise the Christmas game of the Kansas City Chiefs versus the Las Vegas Raiders).
The Nickelodeon broadcast features eye-popping graphics that feature slime-filled end zones and SpongeBob SquarePants between the goalposts on field-goal attempts. They have been considered a success thus far with their ability to introduce a younger age group to the game, while focusing enough attention on the game itself to keep parents entertained as well.
Nickelodeon and CBS have not announced who will be in the broadcast booth for this season's games. The past three seasons, the Nickelodeon play-by-play commentators were Noah Eagle, “NFL Today” analyst Nate Burleson and Nick star Gabrielle Nevaeh Green.
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The first broadcast, a 2020 NFC wild-card game between the New Orleans Saints and the Chicago Bears, averaged 2.06 million fans. The Christmas game last season between the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Rams averaged 906,000.
It also featured SpongeBob SquarePants voice actor Bill Fagerbakke, in character as Patrick Star, trolling Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson after an interception.
“That’s not what he wanted to cook,” Patrick chimed in after Wilson was picked off by Bobby Wagner during the first quarter.
Who knows what other hilarity might ensue this year? Perhaps a Patrick-on-Patrick interview if Patrick Mahomes is back in the Super Bowl? Or a slime Bill Belichick until he smiles segment? The possibilities are endless when Nickelodeon is involved.
