Bart Simpson may soon have a new catchphrase in his repertoire: “Don't get a cowboy, man.”
The Walt Disney Co., the NFL and ESPN are teaming up to debut another alternate animated broadcast of an upcoming NFL game, but this time they're going big with “ESPN's The Simpsons Funday Football.”
On December 9, Disney+ and ESPN+ will stream the Dallas Cowboys-Cincinnati Bengals game, but it will take place at Atoms Stadium in Springfield, with all 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 the game will be bigger on multiple fronts: For starters, it's a Monday night football match, not a Sunday morning game like last year History of the toy game.
And unlike last year's game, where Hollywood strikes limited Disney's ability to use talent from those films, this year's Simpsons game will feature a full roster of Simpsons voice cast participants, including Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner and Yeardley Smith. They will lend their voices to pre-recorded skits and skits (written by Simpsons production team) that will take place before and during the game, including some involving players from each team and ESPN talent such as Stephen A. Smith, Peyton and Eli Manning.
The altcast will also have their 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 a real Bengals player), while Homer Simpson will play for the Cowboys. Marge and Lisa will interview players during the game, while Maggie will operate the SkyCam.
THE Simpsons-altcast themed means that ESPN will have three different versions of that week Monday night footballwith the traditional presentation hosted by Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on ESPN, ABC and ESPN+, the Manningcast hosted by Peyton and Eli Manning on ESPN2 and ESPN+, and the Simpsons version on Disney+ and ESPN+.
The game will be the highest profile live sporting event available to stream on Disney+.
The Simpsons — which Disney acquired in the 2019 Fox deal — targets a younger male demo that the NFL wants to reach, creating a slightly more logical animated option than the History of the toy effort a year ago. While new episodes of the show still air on Fox (and typically get a ratings boost when the network has a Sunday NFL doubleheader), Disney+ has also been streaming several shorts and will have an exclusive holiday special in December .