CBS, Nickelodeon, to simulcast NFL on Christmas

CINCINNATI, OH - DECEMBER 26: A detail view of the CBS NFL logo is seen on a banner during a game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Baltimore Ravens on December 26, 2021, at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, OH. (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire)

Not only will the NFL Christmas Day schedule expand to three games, it will also include Nickelodeon’s ballyhooed “Slimecast” coverage.

CBS will air a Broncos-Rams Christmas Day NFL game that is simulcast on Nickelodeon, it was announced Tuesday. The game will mark the first regular season NFL simulcast on Nickelodeon, which has aired an alternate presentation of a CBS Wild Card playoff game in the each of the past two years. Based on Tuesday’s press release, it would seem that the Christmas game is in place of — rather than in addition to — the Wild Card simulcast.

The Broncos-Rams game is scheduled for 4:30 PM ET as what would be the second game of a Christmas Day NFL tripleheader. FOX has aired the 4:30 PM game on Christmas the past two years.

CBS has not aired a Christmas Day NFL game since 2004, when it carried Raiders-Chiefs in a similar late afternoon window. The network has no contractual claim to the holiday, unlike NBC (which airs a Christmas night game whenever it falls on a Sunday) or FOX (which has rights to a Christmas game whenever the NFL plays on the holiday).

The Nickelodeon simulcast was much-praised when it debuted on a Bears-Saints playoff game two years ago and generated an audience exceeding two million viewers, accounting for a solid seven percent of the total audience. The audience for this past season’s simulcast of a 49ers-Cowboys playoff game was significantly smaller (1.3M) and accounted for just three percent of the audience.

The NFL is releasing its schedule in drips and drabs. The league has previously announced its Thursday Night Football opener (Chargers-Chiefs in Week 2), its international games in London (Vikings-Saints and Giants-Packers on NFL Network, Broncos-Jaguars on ESPN+), Germany (Seahawks-Buccaneers on NFL Network) and Mexico (49ers-Cardinals on ESPN) and a Monday Night Football doubleheader (Titans-Bills on ESPN and Eagles-Vikings on ABC in Week 2).

FOX is set to announce a game from its schedule on Wednesday and NBC will do so on Thursday morning. The full schedule is set to be released Thursday night.

[News from CBS Sports]

Tags: NFL on CBS NFL on Christmas NFL Schedule Release

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Comments 2

Esl says:

4 years ago

Paulsen
Do you know what’s going to happen when Xmas falls on a Tuesday or Wednesday? It makes sense having NFL games when Xmas falls on the weekend or even on a Thursday or Friday. But it would seem odd if they would have games on an Xmas day that falls on a Tue or Wed?
Nate Johnson says:

4 years ago

Must be trade off from FOX and CBS where CBS has the middle of the 3-game window on Christmas and FOX will get that for the Wildcard round. Let’s remember that the past 2 seasons, FOX had a Saturday middle window of the playoffs in the 2020 playoffs and a 1 Eastern Sunday Kickoff this past January that made Troy Aikman on air sound as if they got the bad end of the stick with CBS having a 49ers/Cowboys middle Sunday window match-up. So I believe that since CBS had an interest for a Christmas game that an offer was there and CBS easily took it because for that window who knows how much they can make in revenue off of a Christmas game vs. a Wildcard game that no networks or sponsors knows which match-up and teams will go where.

Then again, maybe someone from CBS came up with this unique idea. However, I do believe it all boils back to a trade off. CBS in no way could pull off two simulcast on Nick in one season.

It is interesting though that CBS will have a match-up of a couple of teams in the West of the central time zone. Depending on how the Champs and Broncos season goes it shouldn’t be a significant deal, but I do find that pretty interesting. Perhaps a west-coast bias?

With all of that set in stone, it will be interesting if in the year 2023 CBS Cowboys’ Thanksgiving game will be simulcast on Nick. I’m sure Nick will be very creative on Christmas and why not add that to Thanksgiving. For the record, I believe this news is really good for Nick because in a way it shows that they are not repetitive in covering their only NFL game which means that they could have some sort of creative thinking going forward in these matters.