A Syracuse native will be among the TV commentators for the 2024 Super Bowl — with a twist.
Variety reports “SpongeBob SquarePants” star Tom Kenny will be part of the Super Bowl LVIII broadcast on Nickelodeon, delivering commentary as the iconic cartoon character during the NFL championship game Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024. He’ll be joined by Bill Fagerbakke, the voice of SpongeBob sidekick Patrick Star, in the cartoon booth as they relay action during the game.
Syracuse University alumnus Noah Eagle and fellow sportscaster Nate Burleson will handle the bulk of the show, which will also feature slime and animated graphics as an alternate, more kid-friendly broadcast.
Variety reports Eagle and Burleson will similarly join “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” Raphael and Donatello for a “Nickmas” version of a CBS holiday football broadcast on Christmas Day.
Sportscaster Noah Eagle, pictured at UCLA during a 2022 NCAA basketball game, and his father Ian Eagle are both Syracuse University alumni.Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images
Paramount Global is simulcasting the Super Bowl on CBS and its corporate cousin, Nickelodeon, to reach new audiences. Nick’s version will also feature live commentary from popular characters like Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence), Larry the Lobster (Lawrence), Dora the Explorer (Diana Zermeño) and Boots (Asher Colton Spence), plus “NFL Slimetime” stars Young Dylan and Dylan Schefter.
CBS, where most of the game’s 100-plus million viewers are expected to tune in, will be led by the broadcast team of Jim Nantz, Tony Romo and Tracy Wolfson.
Kenny, a 1980 graduate of Bishop Grimes High School and a SAMMYS Lifetime Achievement Award winner, has been the voice of “SpongeBob” for nearly 25 years. His credits include more than 500 movies and TV shows ranging from “Adventure Time,” “Powerpuff Girls,” and “Scooby-Doo” to “Mr. Show with Bob and David,” “Shakes the Clown” (with fellow Syracuse native Bobcat Godlthwait) and the animated “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
“Syracuse is in my bones, it’s where I grew up. My mom still lives in the house from when I was born,” Kenny told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard last year. “It’s a great place. Really, Bobcat (Goldthwait) and I talk about this all the time. This place made us. It formed us. Syracuse is the — I want to say petri dish, but — the oven or refrigerator, that we were formed in... It’s more of a freezer than an oven.”