NFL Playoffs 2025: CBS Sports and Nickelodeon Go Beyond SpongeBob Universe, Boost AR Technology With Latest Slime-Filled Altcast AR graphics for Chargers-Texans are again driven by Silver Spoon Animation By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Friday, January 10, 2025 - 4:04 pm
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Nickelodeon and CBS Sports are set to produce their sixth slime-filled alternative NFL telecast: NFL Wild Card Game Live From Bikini Bottom. And Saturday's SpongeBob SquarePants-themed presentation of the Chargers-Texans matchup will serve as a tribute to just how far these AR-graphics-fueled broadcasts have come - both technologically and creatively - since the first Nickelodeon altcast of an NFL game, in 2021.
You always want to top what you did the last time around; that's for sure, says CBS Sports' Shawn Robbins, who will once again serve as coordinating producer of the game. Our primary goals this time around are to bring in more characters than ever before and to push the technology further than we ever have.
Watch the best moments from Saturday's broadcast by clicking on the image above.
More Characters, More Fun: Upping the Ante After Super Bowl LVIII CBS Sports and Nickelodeon's sixth family-friendly collaboration on an NFL game - the third NFL Wild Card game - follows Super Bowl LVIII Live From Bikini Bottom, which won a Sports Emmy Award and marked the first-ever altcast for a Super Bowl.
Upping the ante for this outing, the Nickelodeon broadcast will feature appearances by fan-favorite characters from Paramount's portfolio beyond the SpongeBob SquarePants universe: Transformers, Hey Arnold!, CatDog, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Loud House, The Tiny Chef Show, The Fairly OddParents, Rugrats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and many more.
We genuinely felt we hit a home run on the Super Bowl, says Robbins, but there is always room for improvement. We achieved our goals, got in everything we wanted to do, so we immediately started thinking about what we could do to give it a bigger feel. The SpongeBob universe is phenomenal, but there's a whole big world of Nickelodeon [IP] that we didn't touch on in the previous games. That's what we're bringing to this game. There will be some surprises and Nickelodeon characters you weren't expecting to see.
Silver Spoon Animation is once again at the center of the production, running eight Unreal 5.4 Engines from Pixotope (with redundant backups) to drive the augmented-reality-graphics operation. Three camera-tracking technologies are being deployed for the production: G3DVu, SMT, and Stype.
There is no better moment that show the power of augmented reality for sports TV than in situations like this, where it is actually part of the storytelling, says Jason Cohen, SVP, remote technical operations, CBS Sports. It isn't just there for eye candy; it's actually there to move the story ahead.
CBS Sports and Nickelodeon have also teamed up with SMT to create a new lineup of innovative, Nickified graphics, including:
Slime Zone: A touchdown celebration like no other, with virtual slime cannons filling the screen
Rope Line of Scrimmage: An imaginative twist on the traditional line of scrimmage
Best First Down Line Ever: A fun, gooey, animated line that adds excitement to every first down
CatDog Down and Distance: A playful graphic that adjusts length for varying yardages, inspired by the classic Nickelodeon duo
Red Zone Animations: Eye-catching visuals that highlight the action-packed moments inside the 20-yard line
SMT is also providing its SportsCG and QB Stat systems to power live game data and visual enhancements
Earlier this week, a Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) scan of NRG Stadium in Houston to provide Silver Spoon with the 3D mesh model that will serve as the canvas for Saturday's presentation. Unlike at Super Bowl LVIII, for which the scan was done weeks in advance, the Lidar scan could not be performed until the playoff rankings became official following last week's regular-season finale.
For the Super Bowl, says Robbins, we knew the venue way in advance, and we had two weeks to prepare once we knew who the teams would be. But, for Wild Card, we find out not only the teams but also the venue, and we have less than a week to prepare since it's a Saturday game. The technical challenges have been a lot greater this week, especially since we've upped production. Yes, we did two Wild Card games in the past - New Orleans and Dallas - where we found out the week of the game, but, now that we've raised the bar in terms of the production, it's an even bigger lift.
In terms of the in-game AR-graphics workflow, the production team is using modified Xbox controllers to insert virtual elements on the field.
We've surrounded ourselves with the right people who know how to innovate, says Cohen. It's important to partner with the types of companies and vendors that can help elevate your overall product. When we started four years ago, the machines simply didn't have the processing power that they do today. We've come a long way in a rather short time.
Onsite in Houston: Side-by-Side Trucks, Real and Animated Announcers The Nickelodeon effort will be a side-by-side broadcast from separate trucks - Game Creek Video Peacock A and B units and Edit 1 truck - alongside the main CBS trucks (NEP Supershooter 4 units).
The Nickelodeon broadcast will have nine of its own manned cameras, as well as access to more than a dozen camera feeds from the main CBS broadcast.
Doing a regular game or a fully animated game is very different from meshing those worlds together, says Cohen. We are mixing regular-game coverage with the animated portion. That means you have to ensure normal NFL-game coverage in terms of s
