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]
