Happy Friday! My SBJ colleague David Broughton has a thorough breakdown of the NHL's sponsorship roster as the league heads into its final Global Series weekend (taking place in Finland). View all 74 NHL-associated brands here. - Ethan Joyce
In today's edition of Power Up:
- 'The Simpsons' showrunner talks 'MNF' plans
- Evolv Technology fires president/CEO
- USTA using electronic line-calling at juniors
'Simpsons' showrunner delves into Cowboys-Bengals 'MNF' alt-cast plans
Matt Selman, showrunner of The Simpsons, said the decision of getting involved with ESPN’s Monday Night Football alt-cast was pretty simple.
“I just say yes to stuff,” Selman said, name-checking other projects ranging from video games to movies and theme parks. That list now includes an animated NFL game between the Bengals and Cowboys on Dec. 9, streaming on ESPN+ and Disney+.
“We're big NFL fans around the Simpsons so to be able to piggyback on the biggest entertainment property in America, I mean, that would be insane not to want to have that adventure, that thrill ride,” Selman said, adding, “This keeps us in the public eye. It keeps us vital. It's good for the health of the show to do crazy side projects.”
Selman touted “so many surprises and references” that will be packed into the event — they are going to max out “the amount of Simpsony goodness that we're going to cram into this,” he quipped — which will include original content. In conversation with SBJ, he largely avoided sharing spoilers but did divulge the premise of how the football game plays out in the Simpsons universe. (“I’m going rogue,” he warned a publicist on the zoom call.)
Here’s the idea: Bart and Homer are playing a game of backyard touch football when Homer over-exerts himself and falls asleep in front of Monday Night Football. The actual Bengals-Cowboys game then plays out as a dream in Springfield’s Atoms Stadium, retaining that classic Bart-Homer conflict that’s “so baked into the DNA of the show,” Selman said.
Bart, along with Krusty, Nelson, Milhouse and Ralph, will all be on the Bengals sideline. Homer, Carl, Barney, Lenny and Moe will join the Cowboys. At times, Bart and Homer will replace the animated football players and join the action on the field. Lisa and Marge will do in-game interviews, with Maggie controlling the SkyCam.
“There's a thematic overlap between Bart and Joe Burrow — they have the same energy — and then Homer and the Cowboys," Selman said. "I feel like there's a good character conflict."
With legacy brands like Disney, ESPN, the NFL and The Simpsons all involved — not to mention Sony, through tech providers Beyond Sports and Hawk-Eye — Selman quipped that the creative process has included “hilarious emails with 50 people on every email” before heaping profuse credit on Spike and Sparky, referring to ESPN Senior Director of Animation, Graphics Innovation & Production Design Michael Szykowny (Spike) and ESPN Creative Studio’s Senior Creative Director David Sparrgrove (Sparky).
“ESPN is the one doing all the work,” Selman said. “We're just doing the writing and the Simpsonizing and Simpsonifying. They're doing all the animation and the producing, and it’s a lot. They're doing a lot. The scope of and ambition of this is very high.”
Simpsons creator Matt Groening and executive producer James Brooks joined some of the zooms, Selman noted, adding that writer Joel Cohen was a “creative workhorse” for the MNF game. The actual Simpsons cast will lend their voices, unlike ESPN’s Toy Story game last year which took place during the SAG-AFTRA strike.
NFL storylines and skits have been commonplace in the Simpsons’ 36-year run. Instead of the Red Zone channel, Homer watches Punt Zone — which was voiced by actual Red Zone host Scott Hanson, who posted on X this week that he’s happy to reprise the role for MNF.
In another episode, the Simpsons family arrives at the Super Bowl, only to discover their tickets are counterfeit. (“See, the hologram's missing, and there's no such team as the Spungos, and they seem to be printed on some sort of cracker,” the gate attendant explained before taking a bite.) A special episode following Super Bowl XXXIX on Fox include Homer being asked to choreograph a dance performance during the Super Bowl halftime show, with Tom Brady and LeBron James among the guest appearances.
“Football is so part of Americana and The Simpsons are so part of Americana that it’s peppered throughout tons of episodes,” Selman said, noting that both are both a multi-generational viewing experience.
“Ultimately, that's what football and The Simpsons are both trying to do,” he added about a mission beyond commercial success, which is to “connect with our audiences, connect with humanity and with the narratives that are fun and not depressing.”
Evolv fires President/CEO Peter George
Evolv Technology has fired President and CEO Peter George effective immediately. The company said via press release that the move is without cause and follows “months of careful planning and deliberation.”
Related Stories
Evolv’s BOD has appointed CIO and co-founder Michael Ellenbogen as its interim president and CEO. He previously served seven years as the CEO of Evolv, which was founded in 2013. The company’s AI-powered weapon-detection gateways serve various sports venues around the U.S. – Evolv works with approximately 40 sports-related clients with connections to the major North American leagues and colleges.
George’s departure comes in a year featuring multiple investigations for the security screening tech company. In February, Evolv confirmed that it was complying with an SEC investigation. And last week, Evolv shared that approximately two years of financial records would need to be re-evaluated after an ongoing internal investigation -- led by an ad hoc committee of independent directors from its board -- determined that certain Evolv personnel had crafted business deals with extra terms and conditions that were not properly reported.
In October 2023, Bloomberg reported that the FTC was looking into Evolv’s screening ability of its technology. George said on Evolv’s Q2 2024 earnings call that the company was “in communication with the FTC, and we continue to work closely with them, collaborate with them, and we're working towards a resolution.”
The release also said that in May, Evolv formed a succession planning committee to evaluate leadership and plan for an orderly transition. Since then, a search firm has helped Evolv recruit and interview CEOs.
Stock prices for Evolv Technologies Holdings Inc. have dropped dramatically over the last month. As of this writing, company stock was trading at $2.16 per share. On Oct. 22, company share prices briefly hit a one-month high of $4.53 and closed at $4.46.
USTA using PlayReplay's live electronic line-calling technology
The USTA will execute its first formal deployment of electronic line-calling technology provided by PlayReplay at the USTA Junior National Indoor Championships in late November.
Singles and doubles players competing in Boys’ and Girls’ 16s and 12s tournaments played between November 29 and December 2 – and across four different facilities – will have access to PlayReplay’s ELC system for challenges. Players call their own lines at this level of competition and most matches don’t have a chair umpire, so the challenge process will be player-initiated and immediate, according to the USTA. Upon challenging, players proceed to a courtside touchscreen kiosk, where ball-tracking data and a ruling on the previous shot will be displayed. The entire process is said to take approximately 20 seconds.
Under the USTA’s current protocol, there is no limit to the number of times a player can challenge, but roving officials will monitor for excessive challenging.
USTA Ventures, a strategic fund launched by the governing body last year, made PlayReplay its first equity investment earlier this summer. The USTA has piloted the system at several junior tournaments this year and reported that a surveyed group of 64 players, parents, tournament staff and officials rated their ‘overall impression’ of PlayReplay’s technology 9.4 out of 10, on average.
“The feedback that we’re getting from the players and parents is, ‘This [PlayReplay] needs to be at every tournament – this completely changes the dynamic of how my kid feels on the court with respect to cheating and line calling and so on,’” Michael Hughes, the USTA’s senior director of digital strategy and innovation, told SBJ earlier this year.
PlayReplay’s ELC setup is comprised of four net post-affixed cameras and the courtside touchscreen, which will be installed at the Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis; Manchester Athletic Club in Manchester, Massachusetts; XS Tennis Village in Chicago; and USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York for the upcoming tournaments.
The Stockholm-based vendor’s ELC system is approved for use in indoor competition by the Swedish tennis federation and is currently being piloted by the ITA at select events during the 2024-25 college tennis season.