NFL Playoffs 2021: Wild Card Game To Get Nick-ified' on Sunday When CBS Sports, Nickelodeon Combine Production Efforts Virtual slime, Blockies' characters will help make the simulcast attractive to kids By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Friday, January 8, 2021 - 12:35 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
For CBS Sports, the 2020 NFL season will conclude with Super Bowl LV on Feb. 7 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL, and a playoff stretch that will feature field-level camera angles never seen before and new shooting styles and methodologies. And Sunday's Nickelodeon simulcast of the game between the New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears will give the playoffs a fun start, with a production taking advantage of AR technology and more to allow kids to see a broadcast geared to them.
Virtual slime cannons will bring Nickelodeon's most iconic element to NFL touchdowns on Sunday.
It will be all things kids, but adults will get a good game, too, says Shawn Robbins, coordinating producer, CBS Sports. We have an experienced production team that knows the game of football first and foremost. It's in our blood, so we won't miss snaps or have jokes over the play. It will be a lot of fun, but the fun will be around what is most important, which is the game.
Robbins became involved with the project in August when Rob Bagshaw, EVP, unscripted content, Nickelodeon, and the Nickelodeon production team laid out a vision for the game.
They reimagined an NFL broadcast in the Nick style, with slime cannons and all of the characters you would envision, Robbins says. The CBS and Nickelodeon teams, especially graphics, have been working hand-in-hand on this project.
SpongeBob, Slime, and Googly Eyes, @NFLonCBS and @Nickelodeon will present the NFL like you've NEVER seen it before on Wild Card Weekend.
Details on the January 10 broadcast here: https://t.co/NK00FW2vsN pic.twitter.com/x3wf1dqaIk
CBS Sports (@CBSSports) December 15, 2020
CBS Sports producer Ken Mack and director Suzanne Smith will call Game Creek Columbia and NEP Chromium home for the show; the main CBS production team will work out of NEP Supershooter CBS and Game Creek Video Edit 2.
It has been one of the most fun projects I've worked on at CBS, says Jason Cohen, VP, remote technical operations, CBS Sports, because it's so unique, so creative, and the sky is the limit [on] the elements.
Cohen and the production team worked to ensure that all the technical components are in place to properly incorporate Nickelodeon-specific AR elements and a 1st & Ten line Nick-ified by SMT.
SpongeBob SquarePants will play a big role in Nickelodeon's NFL coverage this weekend
There are hard and field-level cameras that will frame shots in certain ways, he explains, and then the Nickelodeon editors can take that footage and repurpose it with unique flair.
For example, when a touchdown is scored, the Nickelodeon broadcast will feature AR slime cannons shooting out of the real-world pylons.
After a touchdown in a regular show, Cameras 1 and 3 push in, says Robbins. But, on the Nickelodeon show, we lose the effect if the shot isn't wide. Suzanne Smith came up with the idea of allotting cameras at the one and three positions just for the Nickelodeon show so the graphics can be seen the way the production team intended.
The Nickelodeon show will have eight of its own cameras and five EVS replay servers as well as access to the 18 camera signals for the CBS show.
Expect plenty of kid-friendly AR elements in Nickelodeon's NFL broadcast this weekend.
We will also have three replay editors working remotely using Hawkeye, says Cohen, two working on the CBS show and the third on the Nickelodeon show.
A Green Bay game on Dec. 6 served as a rehearsal, and Robbins says the functionality and workflows required between the trucks and the Nickelodeon graphics and editing teams were ironed out there.
During the process of coming up with elements, Robbins's own kids, ages 12, 9, and 7, have been a test audience of sorts for various ideas. They don't know it, he says, but they have been a huge part of this process.
The goal will be to not only entertain but also inform, and Robbins says play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle, analyst Nate Burleson, and Nick star Gabrielle Nevaeh Green, will have a unique chance to also educate.
Nate is so excited to teach the game, says Robbins. He has three kids of his own and is also a high school football coach.
Halftime replays will have a truly unique look during Nickelodeon's NFL playoff game on Sunday.
Halftime highlights also will have a unique look. NFL Next Gen Stats will allow animated Blockie characters (similar in look to Minecraft characters) to mimic the exact formations and routes run by the players in the real highlights.
As for the lasting impact of the broadcast, the production will exemplify a new way of working. For instance, clips will be moved to New York, where Nick editors will finish them and return them for use as bumpers, highlights, and more.
We'll see ways to implement that on a lot of broadcasts going forward, Robbins points out. Maybe not in a slime way but in a lot of ways. This whole production relies on technology, and it's just another way to bring coolness to the game.
The Sunday game will be the second NFL playoff game of the weekend for CBS. Saturday's game between the Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts will be produced out of NEP Supershooter 4, which will make its NFL playoff debut.
We've upgraded coverage with additional cameras around the stadium, Skycam, pylon cameras, aerials, and added super-slo-mo coverage and replay capabilities, says Cohen. The A game on Sunday increases to nine super-slo-mos plus a 4K zoom using the Sony 4800, Skyc
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
NFL Playoffs 2021: Wild Card Game To Get Nick-ified' on Sunday When CBS Sports, Nickelodeon Combine Production Efforts Virtual slime, Blockies' characters will help make the simulcast attractive to kids By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
