The NFL on Nickelodeon is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that are produced by CBS Sports, and broadcast on the American pay television channel Nickelodeon. The telecast is a basic simulcast of the CBS television feed, but features different on-screen graphics, different play-by-play announcers, special features and guests, special on-screen effects, and network branding. The telecasts are geared toward children and families, and typically feature characters from Nickelodeon programming such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, as well as hosts and correspondents from NFL Slimetime. Since 2020, one or two games each season have been selected for the special airing on Nickelodeon.
The first telecast took place during the playoffs of the 2020 NFL season. Nickelodeon aired a one-time experimental simulcast in coordination with CBS of the Chicago Bears–New Orleans Saints Wild Card game. This marked the first time that a major live sporting event was broadcast on the channel. Following positive reception from media and fans, Nickelodeon announced that the simulcast would return in the 2021 season for a Wild Card playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys.
In 2022–2023, the simulcast was used for Christmas Day games. Later in the 2023 season, it was utilized for Super Bowl LVIII. The most-recent game on Nickelodeon was a Wild Card game in January 2025.
History
In December 2019, Viacom re-merged with CBS Corporation to form ViacomCBS. To capitalize on the re-merger, CBS announced plans to add content from Nickelodeon to its CBS All Access streaming service. Additionally, the National Football League announced that Nickelodeon would air a youth-specific broadcast of an early 2021 Wild Card playoff game that CBS Sports acquired the rights to, marking the first major live sporting event on the channel. The idea for Nickelodeon to televise an NFL game was that of CBS Sports' chairman Sean McManus. McManus brought the idea up to the league, which was looking to reach younger and diverse audiences. While the network has aired sports-related programming in the past (such as its athletics game show Nickelodeon Guts, and its Kids' Choice Sports awards show), this marked the first live sporting event to ever be televised by Nickelodeon.
McManus explained that the production planned to "respect the integrity of the game", but that there would be features "to make it look and feel very, very different than a CBS broadcast, which it should. I think it's really going to be fun." Coordinating producer Shawn Robbins described the broadcast as being a "Nick-ified", "co-viewing" experience for parents and children, and that it would still "look somewhat the same", as they did not want to "mess with your football and put stuff on if that's going to take away from the viewing experience." The broadcast had the inclusion of Nickelodeon cartoon branding as well as commentary from Nick stars Gabrielle Green and Lex Lumpkin. Emphasis was placed on educating viewers of the rules of football; this included appearances by Sheldon Cooper (as played by Iain Armitage on CBS sitcom Young Sheldon) to explain penalties. Robbins told The New York Times that Green was accidentally sent an 800-page package of game notes that was intended for Tony Romo.
CBS Sports' ad sales team handled the ad sales for both telecasts. While a majority of the advertisements for the Bears-Saints game would be the same across both the CBS and Nickelodeon broadcasts, Nickelodeon aired some different ads more that were tailored to its younger audience, excluding ads for alcohol and sports betting apps.
Live telecasts NFC Wild Card Playoff game – January 10, 2021
Nickelodeon's first live NFL game aired on January 10, 2021, as a special youth-specific presentation of the 2021 Wild Card playoff game between the New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears. During the week leading up to the game, Madden NFL 21's "The Yard" mode was updated with SpongeBob SquarePants themed content, including a Bikini Bottom-themed "reef-top" stadium, and SpongeBob-themed modifiers. Immediately prior to the game, Nickelodeon aired a sports-themed SpongeBob clip show, The SpongeBob SportsPants Countdown Special, which was hosted by Burleson.
Nickelodeon in correlation with the National Football League, also launched a website with sports betting-like elements such as free-to-play games and risk-free gambling. More specifically, users of the site would get the chance to pick who would win the game, which would in return, compare to the public pick. The user could receive points that could be exchanged for prizes and rewards. The NFL Nick Play website also featured the ability to collect SpongeBob SquarePants and The Loud House-themed content via QR codes.
Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller was originally supposed to host The SpongeBob SportsPants Countdown Special instead of Nate Burleson, but was not present. It was later revealed on January 15, that Miller was under an unknown criminal investigation in Colorado. A preview of the then-new SpongeBob SquarePants spin-off series, Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years, was also aired at halftime.
Digital on-screen graphics Nickelodeon worked with the agency Elevation to develop the branding and on-air look for the January 10, 2021 broadcast. A trial run was conducted during the Philadelphia Eagles-Green Bay Packers game on December 6, 2020, to test the graphics, animation and filters.
Iain Armitage, in character as Sheldon Cooper from CBS' TV comedy series Young Sheldon appeared over the scoring bug to explain to viewers the rules such as a false start. A giant version of SpongeBob SquarePants appeared between the crossbars during field goal attempts. SpongeBob SquarePants also appeared in player stat graphics to include their "Favorite snack" and "Favorite classic Nick show". Meanwhile, analyst Nate Burleson called the red zone "the money zone", as he drew a dollar bill sign on the cartoon-like graphic.
Nickelodeon's broadcast as a whole, aimed to focus less on stats and more on fun facts about the players—such as a player's favorite flavor of ice cream or even a "tale of the tape" between New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara and Alvin the Chipmunk. Not only that, but Nickelodeon also put important team relationships in terms they feel their audience can understand such as Drew Brees and Taysom Hill of the New Orleans Saints and SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star. Nickelodeon even put up a graphic depicting Patrick Star "trolling" Bears wide receiver Javon Wims after he dropped the ball that would've resulted in a wide-open touchdown. Speaking of Drew Brees, Nate Burleson on the January 10 broadcast compared him to being like the kid at recess who never misses at dodgeball.
For highlight reels, Nickelodeon implemented digital, comic strip-like animation such as white smoke, green slime, blue lightning, players were given superimposed googly eyes and hamburger hats, as well as a dancing Lincoln Loud from The Loud House.
And whenever a player scored a touchdown, two augumented reality green slime-cannons set off on both sides of the endzone or the "slime zone" as Nickelodeon dubbed it, while the "TOUCHDOWN" graphic has been updated, now featuring the team's wordmark preceding a purple football sliding in. Nickelodeon's broadcast also featured pixelated halftime highlights that were presented in an all block graphic style similar to the video game Minecraft.
Broadcast incidents Referee Alex Kemp's open microphone caught Chicago Bears wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson saying "What the fuck?" in reaction to a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct after he voluntarily ran out of bounds during a punt. Patterson later claimed he did not utter the expletive. At the time, Kemp mistakenly called the penalty on #85, tight end Cole Kmet, instead of Patterson who was #84.
Despite his team's loss and completing only 19 passes for 199 yards, Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky won the online voting for the NVP, or Nickelodeon Valuable Player, award with 49% of the votes after podcast host Dan "Big Cat" Katz (Pardon My Take) had led an online campaign with the Twitter hashtag #Mitch4NVP, encouraging viewers to submit multiple votes for Trubisky. He received a trophy, adorned with the Nickelodeon blimp. Chicago defensive end Akiem Hicks and New Orleans defensive end Cameron Jordan finished second and third in voting, respectively.
After volunteering to do so, Saints head coach Sean Payton was slimed after his team's 21–9 victory. A communication disconnect prevented Cameron Jordan from joining Payton in the sliming like sideline reporter Lex Lumpkin tried to do.
NFC Wild Card Playoff game – January 16, 2022
On March 18, 2021, Richard Deitsch of The Athletic asked Sean McManus about the future of Nickelodeon-style NFL games. McManus said that there's a section in the new CBS deal regarding alternate telecasts such as the Nick game, but not weekly. On September 1, 2021, it was announced that the Wild Card simulcast would return for the 2021 NFL season. On December 16, 2021, Nickelodeon announced that Noah Eagle, Nate Burleson, and Gabrielle Nevaeh Green would once again call the channel's NFL Wild Card playoff game telecast, which featured the eighth postseason meeting between the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. It was also announced that Dylan Gilmer would replace Lex Lumpkin as the sideline reporter.
During the week leading up to the game, Rugrats and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themed content was added alongside the SpongeBob content in Madden NFL 22's "The Yard" mode. Two days prior to the game, Nickelodeon aired a sports-themed The Loud House clip show, The Loud House Super Sports Special. A new episode of The Loud House served as the game's lead-in, while the first episode of the then-new Nickelodeon series, Warped!, served as the lead-out. A preview of the then-new Paramount+ series, Big Nate, was also aired at halftime.
Digital on-screen graphics The network introduced a real-time, augmented reality graphic of a giant slime monster, which would periodically pop up behind the defense.
This particular graphic was created with the help from The Famous Group, who also helped provide the graphic depicting SpongeBob SquarePants' face in the crossbar, and a graphic showing the orange Nickelodeon blimp sliming the field right before the kickoff. While there was a blimp graphic that briefly appeared during the 2021 playoff broadcast, this particular rendition not only cast lifelike shadows on the field, but also adjust to the time of day, and allow cameras to zoom in and out while it's in the camera's frame. The graphics were based on Epic Games' Unreal Engine. This was in contrast to the usage of Adobe After Effects during the previous year's NFL playoff game on Nickelodeon.
Another subtle change is the SpongeBob SquarePants graphic between the crossbar now being able to more instantly react to the kick's result in real-time. And instead of the Minecraft-like "Blockie" characters used to simulate actual formations and routes, three-dimensional models based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was used during highlights. Nickelodeon enlisted the services of Beyond Sports to create the animation for said highlights. The "Slime Zone" graphics were also modified to allow for one of Nickelodeon's six dedicated cameras to zoom on one of the slime cannons following a touchdown.
This time around, Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 were also showcased on the broadcast alongside SpongeBob and the titular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the 2012 TV series. When explaining to Nickelodeon's young viewers the significance of the rivalry between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers, the broadcast used the rivalry between Mr. Krabs and Plankton from SpongeBob SquarePants as an analogy.