When Mina Kimes received the call about participating in a new animated NFL telecast themed around The Simpsons, it represented several different passions in one, distinctive venture. Kimes, who has been an avid fan of the sitcom for many years, has thrived as an NFL analyst with ESPN and signed a new multi-year agreement to remain with the company last year. A framed photo of Lisa Simpson is on display within the backdrop of her studio setup, recognizing the individual she regards as a hero who she feels embodies her own characteristics the most.
Even before she was offered a role as an analyst for the presentation, Kimes frequently made references to The Simpsons within her content, conveying an inextricable kinship with an award-winning television staple. The animated comedy is in the midst of its 36th season and has produced 776 episodes throughout that time, entertaining audiences through modern satire and epochal hyperbole.
“When you watch the game, if you’re a fan of the show, you’re going to be rewarded in so many ways, not just with how unusual and fun it is, but with all of the references,” Kimes said, “and I think being able to draw on so many seasons, so many characters, so many quotable lines, is what’s going to make this thing really sing.”
Consumers will be able to view this animated presentation of the Monday Night Football matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys utilizing the ESPN+ or Disney+ streaming services. The alignment of dissemination verticals aligns with ESPN’s strategy of audience expansion as traditional media companies evolve and look to thrive amid altered equivalencies and new stakeholders, such as technology firms and social media outlets.
In addition to The Simpsons Funday Football production, the traditional broadcast of the game will air on ESPN and ABC. Disney is simulcasting Monday Night Football on the over-the-air broadcast network for the remainder of the regular season, and this feed will also be available on ESPN+. The streaming service and ESPN2 will present Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli as the alternate broadcast continues its fourth season. Kimes is focused on executing her role within this multiplatform accumulation of telecasts, which has involved varied means of preliminary tasks.
“I have spent more time with these teams – I would watch them anyways despite sort of where their seasons are trending – but I’ve spent extra time studying the rosters [and] some of their tendencies just knowing that this game was around the corner,” Kimes said. “And then as far as The Simpsons-related prep, again, it’s kind of going back and reading up on some of the characters and their catchphrases and watching some of the clips and here and there just so that I kind of feel immersed enough in Simpsons world to actually call the game like I live there.”
Kimes will call The Simpsons broadcast alongside analyst Dan Orlovsky and play-by-play announcer Drew Carter. Whereas Kimes and Orlovsky star on NFL Live and were friends before starting at ESPN, she and Carter have not had a chance to collaborate at the company. Carter looks forward to exhibiting the rapport he has established with his colleagues as they bring commentary to a game rife with external elements.
“A lot of it, especially when you’re in a three-man booth, is saying what you need to say and then getting out of the way,” Carter explained. “We’ve had a lot of conversations about how we’re going to handle a three-man booth when it’s not traditional and you can’t glance at the other person or tap them on the shoulder because we’re not going to be right next to each other.”
Disney+ integrated an ESPN+ tile into its app last week, rendering a streamlined viewing experience that blends different subsections of the company. Curating the selection amid the user interface allows for the company to aim in diminishing purported divergences as it gears towards building out its direct-to-consumer products. This includes the expected launch of the ESPN Flagship direct-to-consumer product next fall.
“I think just everybody’s watching it for different reasons,” Kimes said. “There are diehard fans of the team, there are people who nerd out on football stuff and then there’s folks who want to be entertained, and hopefully our game will bring all of those things, but I think that unique flavor is something that could make this extra entertaining, especially for fans of the show.”
When Disney approached the NFL with the idea for alternate broadcasts, the league was supportive and viewed it as an opportunity to leverage a global franchise and expand awareness and viewers of football. The undertaking has been approximately one year in the making, and the league is excited to take part in the journey of this experience featuring two exhilarating football teams. Although the league considers itself fortunate to have best-in-class partners producing games that average 18.1 million viewers per matchup, it views digital media as an area of growth.
“Disney+ is a robust area with the millions and millions of subscribers they have,” said Hans Schroeder, executive vice president and chief operating officer of NFL Media. “To bring an NFL experience into that environment that’s new and different is incredibly exciting. To go into borders and across borders in a different way, to go into time zones and to time periods that we don’t typically offer our content in. All of those are, for us, tremendous opportunities to engage, to learn, and hopefully for our fans to give them new experiences that will inform what we do going forward.”
Having access to a wide array of intellectual property enables properties within Disney business units to work in tandem and catalyze unparalleled projects. Carter has been synonymous with several of these efforts, including the two iterations of the Big City Greens Classic. In Week 4 of the NFL season last year, Carter called the first animated NFL telecast in the history of the company centered around the Toy Story franchise. The presentation faced difficulties early on related to a faulty chip within a football, but things smoothed over once the football was taken out of rotation.
“This is like putting together a live broadcast on steroids,” Carter articulated. “You’re taking all of the technical challenges and potential pitfalls and multiplying it by a thousand, so hopefully it goes off without a hitch.”
The animated broadcast will follow a storyline that aligns with the format of typical episodes of The Simpsons. In fact, those associated with the show have created custom scenes and elements to be used throughout the presentation. Carter, Kimes and Orlovsky will be interviewing many of The Simpsons characters during the game that will add to the viewing experience. Kimes is cognizant of the fact that due to the profusion of ancillary content, there may not be as much time for the incisive, penetrating commentary she delivers on other platforms.
“Folks aren’t watching for detailed Xs and Os breakdowns of every single play, but you’re watching this [thinking] you want to be entertained, but you also want to follow the game,” Kimes delineated, “and I think in moments where there are big plays or big decisions, choosing the moments wisely as ones where Dan and I can just be analysts and do analysis, while also, in other sports, laying out for all of the incredible Simpsons-related content.”
The broadcast will operate on a slight delay, allowing for the production team to replace NFL players with characters from the show so they can make signature plays, fully leaning into the milieu associated with The Simpsons universe. Even though select members of the crew will know the sequence of plays slightly ahead of time, Carter professed that he will vaguely be informed by a producer that something big is forthcoming.
“You want to walk that line where our reaction has to be organic like we are calling a regular game,” Carter said. “Like Joe Buck has no idea what’s going to happen on any given snap, so you have to be ready, but also being ready in the sense that if we want to put one of these characters in the game or we want to roll in an element, knowing that we’ll be able to do that in a way that maximizes all the hard work that people have put into it.”
Ahead of Monday night’s broadcast, Carter divulged that Kimes may introduce herself to viewers akin to The Simpsons character Troy McClure, specifying locations from where they may know her. There has been a proliferation in ESPN personalities taking on projects through partnerships or licensing deals with the company in recent years, working in tandem to generate new offerings and elevate their personal brands. In the end, Kimes believes that her involvement with various media properties can foster augmented levels of awareness towards this animated enterprise.
“My hope is that people who tune into this game, some of them recognize us from NFL Live, or maybe people who listen to my podcast or watch it on ESPN2 are inclined to follow me to ESPN+ to watch this game,” Kimes said. “I think that’s the thing about having all of these shows on different platforms is we are sort of the common thread between them, and the hope is that familiarity will maybe drive interest or reward people who have been longtime listeners and viewers.”
Prior to being asked to participate in this presentation, Carter had never seen an episode of The Simpsons. As a result, part of his preparation for the show has been watching episodes within the series, learning the characters, salient eccentricities and taglines. Carter envisions the show leaning on Kimes’ passion and knowledge for The Simpsons, but he has enjoyed different aspects of the comedy amid constructing the groundwork of his foundational proficiency in this sector.
“I’m crushing tape, but instead of football, I’m watching a TV show,” Carter emphasized. “It’s the most fun I’ve ever had prepping for a game.”
Whereas the Toy Story broadcast last season utilized motion capture suits for the commentators, the team will be wearing Meta Quest Pro headsets this year and experiencing the game from Springfield. The technology permits customization of the surroundings for the broadcasters to enable the ease of following the game, but there are challenges associated with the added immersion into this environment. For example, even though the broadcasters will all be calling the game from the Bristol studios, they will not be able to nonverbally communicate and pick up cues.
“The good thing about calling football games is I play fantasy football, so pretty much everyone who catches a pass or runs the ball, I’ll know who they are and not have to look down,” Carter said. “It’s just the only time it becomes difficult is when I want to reference a stat or something that I have in my notes in front of me, and I have to take the headset off to do that, so it takes some time getting used to for sure.”
In addition to this broadcast airing during prime time, the show is also expected to appeal to a broader demographic. Even though Carter has not been in meetings with research and analytics professionals, he views the average viewer as either a fan of the animated comedy or those who are curious about the presentation. Kimes reminisced on watching Toy Story Funday Football and remembered several explainer segments that broke down aspects of football in simple terms for younger audiences to understand.
“I think my intention is to do this with all ages in mind, but it’s definitely not going to be geared towards kids in the same way,” Kimes said. “Probably, however, if there’s a difference between this and a normal game, other than all the many very obvious differences, it’s just kind of leaning into the casualness and the fun of it.”
Later in the month, Carter is going to be calling the first real-time animated NBA game on ESPN platforms, a Christmas Day matchup between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks taking place at Madison Square Garden. Carter, along with ESPN NBA analyst Monica McNutt, will utilize the virtual reality headsets to call the game from Main Street, USA featuring iconic Disney characters including Mickey and Minnie Mouse. The presentation will air at 12 p.m. EST on ESPN2, Disney+ and ESPN+, accompanying the traditional broadcast and commencing the five-game NBA slate.
“I think those characters are more geared towards a younger audience, so that part of it is different,” Carter said. “But I think The Simpsons is actually easier to prepare for, I think, because it’s just one show, whereas the Disney telecast, it’s pulling from a variety of different properties. So, it will be different, but to be honest with you, I’m kind of taking it one game at a time.”
Throughout his career in sports media, Carter has pondered over the value of his profession on numerous occasions. While doctors, teachers and lawyers all have direct impacts on their clientele, he avers that it is tougher to evince the residual effects as a broadcaster. After the first animated broadcast of NHL Big City Greens, Carter received messages on social media about how the project inspired viewers to become more invested in hockey, effectuating awareness, consumption and retention. Discerning the inherent value of the Disney portfolio, ESPN and its partners have shifted the paradigmatic means of presentation and remain committed to enriching the viewing experience with a creative verve premised on innovation towards a new frontier.
“That’s the mission statement – it’s ‘Serving sports fans’ – so for us, we want to give people a different way to consume their favorite product, whether that’s The Simpsons or football, or preferably if people like both, this is a beautiful marriage of those two things and a chance for them to watch that in a way that they’ve never seen it before. In a way, it’s like a three-hour Simpsons movie, so if you love the show, then you’re going to love the game, and if you love football, you want to see it presented in a different way.”
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Derek Futterman is a former associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. Find him on X @derekfutterman.
