188 go

188 go Lisa Simpson once said during an episode of “The Simpsons:” What could be more exciting than the savage ballet that is pro football? On Monday night, the entire Simpsons universe gets to experience it in a way not many could have imagined. The prime-time matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys will also take place at Springfield’s Atoms Stadium as part of “The Simpsons Funday Football” alternate broadcast. The altcast will be streamed on ESPN+, Disney+, and NFL+ (on mobile devices). ESPN and ABC have the main broadcast, while ESPN2 will carry the final “ManningCast” of the regular season. The replay will be available on Disney+ for 30 days. Globally, more than 145 countries will have access to either live or on replay. “We’re such huge football fans, and the Simpsons audience and the football audience, I feel, are like the same audience of just American families and football. And the Simpsons are so much a part of the DNA of the American family and culture that for us to, like, mush them together in this crazy video game, it’s so fun,” said Matt Selman, executive producer of “The Simpsons.” While the game is the focal point, the alternate broadcast, in some ways, will resemble a three-hour episode of “The Simpsons.” It starts with Homer eating too many hot dogs and having a dream while watching football. Homer joins the Cowboys in the dream while Bart teams up with the Bengals. Lisa and Marge will be sideline reporters. “That’s the beginning of the story, and the story continues through the entire game until Homer wakes up from his dream at the end of the game. It is like a complete story, and the NFL game will happen in between. It’s just going to be an amazing presentation with tons of surprises,” said Michael “Spike” Szykowny, ESPN’s VP of edit and animation. This is the second year ESPN has done an alternate broadcast for an NFL game. It used the characters from “Toy Story” for last year’s Sunday morning game from London between the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars. “The Simpsons” has featured many sports-themed episodes during its 35 seasons. Even though “Homer at the Bat” remains the consensus favorite sports episode for many Simpsons fans, there have been football ones such as “Bart Star” and “Lisa The Greek.” There also was a Super Bowl-themed one after Fox’s broadcast of Super Bowl 33 between Denver and Atlanta in 1999. Even though “The Simpsons” remains a staple on Fox’s prime-time schedule, it is part of the Disney family after their acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019. All 35 seasons are on Disney+. The show’s creators have worked with ESPN and the NFL to make sure the look and sound is definitely Simpsonsesque. The theme song is a mash-up of “The Simpsons” opening and “Monday Night Football’s” iconic “Heavy Action.” There have also been pre-recorded skits and bits to use during the broadcast featuring Simpson’s legendary voices Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, and Yeardley Smith. The telecast will be entirely animated, with the players’ movements in sync with what is happening in real-time on the field. That is done through player-tracking data enabled by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats system and Sony’s Beyond Sports Technology. While Next Gen Stats tracks where players are on the field with a tracking chip in the shoulder pads, there is skeletal data tracking and limb tracking data — which uses 29 points per player — to get closer to the player’s movements. The other data tracking will allow Beyond Sports and Disney to add special characters to the game. For example, there might be a play where Lisa catches the ball and goes 30 yards instead of Cincinnati’s Tee Higgins. “Lisa is much smaller than the rest of the players. So, in real life, the ball would go over her head, but now, with data processing, we can take the ball and make it go exactly into her hands. So for the viewer, it still looks believable, and it all makes sense,” said Beyond Sports co-founder Nicolaas Westerhof. The other major challenge is making “The Simpsons” two-dimensional cartoon characters into 3-D simulations. Szykowny and his team worked to make that a reality over the past couple of months. “That’s a big leap of faith for them to say, hey, we trust you to make our characters 3-D and work with it. Our ESPN creative studio team has done a wonderful job,” Szykowny said. Lisa, Krusty, Nelson, Milhouse and Ralph will be with Bart and the Bengals; while Carl, Barney, Lenny and Moe join up with with Homer and the Cowboys. The broadcast will also feature ESPN personalities Stephen A. Smith, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning. ESPN’s Drew Carter, Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky will call the game from Bristol, Connecticut, and also be animated. They will wear Meta Quest Pro headsets to experience the game from Springfield using VR technology. For Kimes, being part of the broadcast and being an animated Simpsons character is a dream come true. She is a massive fan of the show and has a framed photo of Lisa Simpson — who she said is a personal hero and icon — as part of her backdrop when she makes appearances on ESPN NFL shows from her home in Los Angeles. “I didn’t have any input, and I didn’t see anything beforehand, so I wasn’t sure if it would look like me, but it kind of does, which is very funny,” said Kimes, who drew Simpsons characters when she was a kid. “To see the actual staff turn me into one was a dream.” Even though the Bengals (4-8) and Cowboys (5-7) have struggled this season, Selman thinks both teams have personalities that appeal to “The Simpsons” universe. “We were just so lucky also that the Cowboys are sort of like a Homer Simpson-type team, American team, and Mike McCarthy might be a Homer-type guy, one might imagine,” he said. ”And then you have Joe Burrow on the other side who is a cool young, spiky-haired, blonde bad boy -- he’s like Bart. And that fits our character archetypes so perfectly. “If Homer is mad at Bart and has a hot dog dream while watching ’Monday Night Football’, and then it’s basically McCarthy versus Burrow, Homer versus Bart, and that’s the simple father versus son strangling — Homer strangling Bart dynamic that has been part of the show for 35 years. I don’t know if that would have worked as well if it was like Titans versus Jacksonville. We would have found something. We would have made it work.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

EDMONTON - Alberta’s Technology Minister Nate Glubish says he’s hoping to see $100 billion worth of artificial intelligence data centres under construction within the next five years. Such centres are filled with computer servers used by companies like Meta to develop and train large-scale artificial intelligence models. Glubish says Meta, as well as other major companies including Google and Amazon, are on the hunt for space to build more facilities, and he wants Alberta to be an option. He says landing some data centres would create jobs and bring in much needed new tax revenue for the province. Glubish also says that since Alberta’s electricity grid regulations allows for off-grid power generation, he thinks the province is an ideal location. He says allowing for off-grid power connections where power generators supply data centres directly also means there’s less risk for Albertans, as there wouldn’t be major drains on the electrical grid. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 4, 2024.Johnson had five rebounds and three steals for the Falcons (3-5). Derrick Butler scored 15 points while going 4 of 15 from the floor, including 2 for 7 from 3-point range, and 5 for 5 from the line and added five rebounds. Campbell had 12 points and shot 1 of 9 from the field and 10 of 12 from the free-throw line. The Aggies (3-4) were led by Jaden Harris, who posted 18 points and nine rebounds. New Mexico State also got 10 points and seven rebounds from Robert Carpenter. Christian Cook finished with nine points and four assists. Campbell scored a team-high 12 points for Bowling Green in the second half, including their game-winner. NEXT UP Up next for Bowling Green is a Saturday matchup with Morgan State at home, and New Mexico State hosts Abilene Christian on Wednesday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .

Swiss National Bank boosted its position in shares of Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. ( NASDAQ:ITCI – Free Report ) by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 185,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,900 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.17% of Intra-Cellular Therapies worth $13,573,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. increased its stake in Intra-Cellular Therapies by 0.5% during the second quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. now owns 34,452 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,357,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in Intra-Cellular Therapies by 9.1% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 2,477 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $181,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D increased its stake in Intra-Cellular Therapies by 0.6% during the third quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 35,673 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,610,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in Intra-Cellular Therapies by 3.3% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 7,951 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $582,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the period. Finally, Quantum Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Intra-Cellular Therapies by 1.0% during the third quarter. Quantum Private Wealth LLC now owns 38,661 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,829,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. 92.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors. Intra-Cellular Therapies Price Performance Shares of ITCI opened at $85.69 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.08 billion, a P/E ratio of -98.49 and a beta of 0.97. Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. has a one year low of $58.14 and a one year high of $93.45. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $79.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $74.66. Insiders Place Their Bets In other Intra-Cellular Therapies news, CEO Sharon Mates sold 40,513 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total transaction of $2,980,946.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,070,329 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,754,807.82. The trade was a 3.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink . Also, President Michael Halstead sold 22,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.12, for a total transaction of $2,038,085.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . In the last quarter, insiders have sold 97,778 shares of company stock valued at $7,524,436. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Several equities analysts recently issued reports on ITCI shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Intra-Cellular Therapies from $81.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Intra-Cellular Therapies from $77.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Intra-Cellular Therapies from $83.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Intra-Cellular Therapies in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Intra-Cellular Therapies from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Intra-Cellular Therapies has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $97.23. Get Our Latest Report on ITCI Intra-Cellular Therapies Company Profile ( Free Report ) Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, clinical development, and commercialization of small molecule drugs that address medical needs primarily in neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders by targeting intracellular signaling mechanisms in the central nervous system (CNS) in the United States. Further Reading Receive News & Ratings for Intra-Cellular Therapies Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Intra-Cellular Therapies and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .Jharkhand Elections 2024: PM Modi congratulates Hemant Soren and JMM after INDIA bloc sweeps the state

Social media users are misrepresenting a report released Thursday by the Justice Department inspector general's office, falsely claiming that it's proof the FBI orchestrated the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The watchdog report examined a number of areas, including whether major intelligence failures preceded the riot and whether the FBI in some way provoked the violence. Claims spreading online focus on the report's finding that 26 FBI informants were in Washington for election-related protests on Jan. 6, including three who had been tasked with traveling to the city to report on others who were potentially planning to attend the events. Although 17 of those informants either entered the Capitol or a restricted area around the building during the riot, none of the 26 total informants were authorized to do so by the bureau, according to the report. Nor were they authorized to otherwise break the law or encourage others to do so. Here's a closer look at the facts. CLAIM: A December 2024 report released by the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General is proof that the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was a setup by the FBI. THE FACTS: That's false. The report found that no undercover FBI employees were at the riot on Jan. 6 and that none of the bureau's informants were authorized to participate. Informants, also known as confidential human sources, work with the FBI to provide information, but are not on the bureau’s payroll. Undercover agents are employed by the FBI. According to the report, 26 informants were in Washington on Jan. 6 in connection with the day's events. FBI field offices only informed the Washington Field Office or FBI headquarters of five informants that were to be in the field on Jan. 6. Of the total 26 informants, four entered the Capitol during the riot and an additional 13 entered a restricted area around the Capitol. But none were authorized to do so by the FBI, nor were they given permission to break other laws or encourage others to do the same. The remaining nine informants did not engage in any illegal activities. None of the 17 informants who entered the Capitol or surrounding restricted area have been prosecuted, the report says. A footnote states that after reviewing a draft of the report, the U.S. attorney's office in Washington said that it “generally has not charged those individuals whose only crime on January 6, 2021 was to enter restricted grounds surrounding the Capitol, which has resulted in the Office declining to charge hundreds of individuals; and we have treated the CHSs consistent with this approach.” The assistant special agent in charge of the Washington Field Office's counterterrorism division told the inspector general's office that he “denied a request from an FBI office to have an undercover employee engage in investigative activity on January 6.” He, along with then-Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Steven D'Antuono, said that FBI policy prohibits undercover employees at First Amendment-protected events without investigative authority. Many social media users drew false conclusions from the report's findings. “JANUARY 6th WAS A SETUP!" reads one X post that had received more than 11,400 likes and shares as of Friday. “New inspector general report shows that 26 FBI/DOJ confidential sources were in the crowd on January 6th, and some of them went into the Capitol and restricted areas. Is it a coincidence that Wray put in his resignation notice yesterday? TREASON!” The mention of Wray's resignation refers to FBI Director Christopher Wray's announcement Wednesday that he plans to resign at the end of President Joe Biden's term in January. Other users highlighted the fact that there were 26 FBI informants in Washington on Jan. 6, but omitted key information about the findings of the report. These claims echo a fringe conspiracy theory advanced by some Republicans in Congress that the FBI played a role in instigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters determined to overturn Republican Donald Trump's 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden stormed the Capitol in a violent clash with police. The report knocks that theory down. Wray called such theories “ludicrous” at a congressional hearing last year. Asked for comment on the false claims spreading online, Stephanie Logan, a spokesperson for the inspector general’s office, pointed The Associated Press to a press release about the report. In addition to its findings about the the FBI's involvement on Jan. 6, the report said that the FBI, in an action its now-deputy director described as a “basic step that was missed,” failed to canvass informants across all 56 of its field offices for any relevant intelligence ahead of time. That was a step, the report concluded, “that could have helped the FBI and its law enforcement partners with their preparations in advance of January 6.” However, it did credit the bureau for preparing for the possibility of violence and for trying to identify known “domestic terrorism subjects” who planned to come to Washington that day. The FBI said in a letter responding to the report that it accepts the inspection general’s recommendation “regarding potential process improvements for future events.” — Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck . By Melissa Goldin, The Associated Press

The Better Business Bureau of Mainland B.C. is urging people to be vigilant to avoid scammers during the postal strike. Since Nov. 15, around 55,000 members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have been on strike. During this time, some fake package delivery scams have been circulating. The Better Business Bureau offers tips for people to protect themselves from scammers as the strike continues. Avoid unsolicited offers from individuals or companies claiming they can deliver your mail or packages during the strike. Research reviews and check for a BBB Accreditation before choosing a service. Scammers may send fake messages claiming to be from Canada Post or alternative couriers, requesting payment for undelivered items or offering priority service. Do not click on links in unsolicited emails or texts. Instead, visit the official website of the courier service for updates. Be cautious of ads or posts on social media offering mail delivery services. Many fraudulent businesses advertise on platforms with the intention of stealing personal information or money. Use the official tracking tool provided by the seller or courier. Fraudulent companies may provide fake tracking numbers to appear legitimate. These include urgent requests for payment or sensitive information. Other warning signs include poor grammar, unprofessional logos or contact information that does not match official sources. Anyone who suspects a scam is urged to report it to the BBB Scam Tracker to help protect others. The scam tracker is online at .

Reilly scores 18 as Delaware downs Rider 72-66Young men swung to the right for Trump after a campaign dominated by masculine appeals

Tempura/E+ via Getty Images Sana Biotechnology, Inc. ( NASDAQ: SANA ) is gearing up to have a major inflection point in 2025. This is the release of initial data from its phase 1 study using SC291 for the treatment of patients with This article is published by Terry Chrisomalis, who runs the Biotech Analysis Central pharmaceutical service on Seeking Alpha Marketplace. If you like what you read here and would like to subscribe to, I'm currently offering a two-week free trial period for subscribers to take advantage of. My service offers a deep-dive analysis of many pharmaceutical companies. The Biotech Analysis Central SA marketplace is $49 per month, but for those who sign up for the yearly plan will be able to take advantage of a 33.50% discount price of $399 per year. Terry Chrisomalis is a private investor in the Biotech sector with years of experience utilizing his Applied Science background to generate long term value from Healthcare. He is the author of the investing group Biotech Analysis Central which contains a library of 600+ Biotech investing articles, a model portfolio of 10+ small and mid-cap stocks with deep analysis for each, live chat, and a range of analysis and news reports to help Healthcare investors make informed decisions. Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.Rescuers reassess safety in search for woman they think fell into a Pennsylvania sinkholeThe trunk of my old car is filled with tattered coats, sweatpants and stocking caps. You'll find holes if you look real close. But those clothes have come in handy in the chilly Treasure State, where so many of us take pride in making the most of challenging weather days. I think of the Montana defense the same way I do the 30-year-old wind pants I pull out of the trunk to wear while covering football games. Both have been largely underappreciated the last five weeks. On Saturday in Bozeman, the Griz defense surrendered 34 points against No. 2 Montana State, so nobody is going to be comparing that crew to Pittsburgh's Steel Curtain of 1975. Certainly fans of the maroon and silver had a lot of reasons to be flustered. But take a step back and consider Montana State possessed the ball for almost two-thirds of the first half. Then the Cats had some good field position in the first 13 minutes of the third quarter and Montana's defense refused to relent, clinging to hope despite a 20-3 deficit. "They chucked it down the field a few times and made two catches — it's not a high percentage play for them and we've gotta live with that," Montana coach Bobby Hauck said coming out of the locker room after halftime. "Other than that we're tackling well. I think we're playing pretty well on defense." The most prolific scoring team in the FCS was limited to 20 points through the first 43 minutes. Kudos to the Montana defense for its hustle and heart. It's just that the Grizzly offense, held scoreless in the first half at home last weekend against Portland State, was held to three points through three quarters in Bozeman against the best defense in the Big Sky Conference. Sure, we all expected Montana to do better in its 123rd annual rivalry game at MSU. Maybe at least score more than one touchdown with so much motivation. But give credit to Montana's defensive coaches for again coming up with a strong game plan against Montana State senior quarterback Tommy Mellott. And credit the defense for its vast improvement since giving up 55 points at home earlier this season to Weber State (4-8) and 49 at Eastern Washington (4-8). Not to beat a dead horse, but I can't help wondering how things might have been different had Clifton McDowell stayed around. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound quarterback led Montana to the FCS title game last December with a knack for picking up tough yards on the ground and doing just enough with his passing. He entered the transfer portal last winter for reasons unreported. Maybe he was looking for more NIL money. Maybe he disliked Montana's weather. You could say it's all ancient history now and doesn't matter. But it does matter. It matters a lot because Montana could have been much better. The banged-up Grizzlies need to regroup in a hurry now with a playoff game — likely at home — coming up next weekend. If the defense plays the way it did against the Bobcats, I like Montana's chances. But something needs to be done with the offense and I'm not even sure what it is at this point. Maybe go back to Keali'i Ah Yat at quarterback, assuming he's healthy, or give 6-4 sophomore Kaden Huot of Helena a few snaps. Montana has beaten only one conference team with a winning record (Northern Arizona), so maybe Griz fans should be grateful their guys are in the playoff mix with an 8-4 record. Any postseason success would feel like a bonus at this point. 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The AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season! Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here . ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia quarterback Carson Beck will not return after he was hit on his throwing hand on the final play of an ugly first half Saturday in the Southeastern Conference championship game against Texas. Beck was hit by outside linebacker Trey Moore, forcing a fumble recovered by Anthony Hill Jr., who then lost the ball on an errant attempt to extend the play with a lateral as time expired. Beck was one of the last players to return to the field following halftime. He was holding his helmet but did not warm up remained on the sideline as backup Gunner Stockton led the offense to its first touchdown on the Bulldogs’ first drive of the second half. Georgia coach Kirby Smart told ESPN Beck would not return to the game and said he had no details on the hand injury. Beck had the right arm wrapped in ice on the Georgia bench. No. 2 Texas outgained No. 5 Georgia 260-54 but led only 6-3 at halftime. The Bulldogs netted minus-2 yards rushing and Beck completed 7 of 13 passes for 56 yards. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballAvior Wealth Management LLC Trims Stock Holdings in KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY)

Lisa Simpson once said during an episode of “The Simpsons:” What could be more exciting than the savage ballet that is pro football? On Monday night, the entire Simpsons universe gets to experience it in a way not many could have imagined. The prime-time matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys will also take place at Springfield’s Atoms Stadium as part of “The Simpsons Funday Football” alternate broadcast. The altcast will be streamed on ESPN+, Disney+, and NFL+ (on mobile devices). ESPN and ABC have the main broadcast, while ESPN2 will carry the final “ManningCast” of the regular season. The replay will be available on Disney+ for 30 days. Globally, more than 145 countries will have access to either live or on replay. “We’re such huge football fans, and the Simpsons audience and the football audience, I feel, are like the same audience of just American families and football. And the Simpsons are so much a part of the DNA of the American family and culture that for us to, like, mush them together in this crazy video game, it’s so fun,” said Matt Selman, executive producer of “The Simpsons.” While the game is the focal point, the alternate broadcast, in some ways, will resemble a three-hour episode of “The Simpsons.” It starts with Homer eating too many hot dogs and having a dream while watching football. Homer joins the Cowboys in the dream while Bart teams up with the Bengals. Lisa and Marge will be sideline reporters. “That’s the beginning of the story, and the story continues through the entire game until Homer wakes up from his dream at the end of the game. It is like a complete story, and the NFL game will happen in between. It’s just going to be an amazing presentation with tons of surprises,” said Michael “Spike” Szykowny, ESPN’s VP of edit and animation. This is the second year ESPN has done an alternate broadcast for an NFL game. It used the characters from “Toy Story” for last year’s Sunday morning game from London between the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars. “The Simpsons” has featured many sports-themed episodes during its 35 seasons. Even though “Homer at the Bat” remains the consensus favorite sports episode for many Simpsons fans, there have been football ones such as “Bart Star” and “Lisa The Greek.” There also was a Super Bowl-themed one after Fox’s broadcast of Super Bowl 33 between Denver and Atlanta in 1999. Even though “The Simpsons” remains a staple on Fox’s prime-time schedule, it is part of the Disney family after their acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019. All 35 seasons are on Disney+. The show’s creators have worked with ESPN and the NFL to make sure the look and sound is definitely Simpsonsesque. The theme song is a mash-up of “The Simpsons” opening and “Monday Night Football’s” iconic “Heavy Action.” There have also been pre-recorded skits and bits to use during the broadcast featuring Simpson’s legendary voices Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, and Yeardley Smith. The telecast will be entirely animated, with the players’ movements in sync with what is happening in real-time on the field. That is done through player-tracking data enabled by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats system and Sony’s Beyond Sports Technology. While Next Gen Stats tracks where players are on the field with a tracking chip in the shoulder pads, there is skeletal data tracking and limb tracking data — which uses 29 points per player — to get closer to the player’s movements. The other data tracking will allow Beyond Sports and Disney to add special characters to the game. For example, there might be a play where Lisa catches the ball and goes 30 yards instead of Cincinnati’s Tee Higgins. “Lisa is much smaller than the rest of the players. So, in real life, the ball would go over her head, but now, with data processing, we can take the ball and make it go exactly into her hands. So for the viewer, it still looks believable, and it all makes sense,” said Beyond Sports co-founder Nicolaas Westerhof. The other major challenge is making “The Simpsons” two-dimensional cartoon characters into 3-D simulations. Szykowny and his team worked to make that a reality over the past couple of months. “That’s a big leap of faith for them to say, hey, we trust you to make our characters 3-D and work with it. Our ESPN creative studio team has done a wonderful job,” Szykowny said. Lisa, Krusty, Nelson, Milhouse and Ralph will be with Bart and the Bengals; while Carl, Barney, Lenny and Moe join up with with Homer and the Cowboys. The broadcast will also feature ESPN personalities Stephen A. Smith, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning. ESPN’s Drew Carter, Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky will call the game from Bristol, Connecticut, and also be animated. They will wear Meta Quest Pro headsets to experience the game from Springfield using VR technology. For Kimes, being part of the broadcast and being an animated Simpsons character is a dream come true. She is a massive fan of the show and has a framed photo of Lisa Simpson — who she said is a personal hero and icon — as part of her backdrop when she makes appearances on ESPN NFL shows from her home in Los Angeles. “I didn’t have any input, and I didn’t see anything beforehand, so I wasn’t sure if it would look like me, but it kind of does, which is very funny,” said Kimes, who drew Simpsons characters when she was a kid. “To see the actual staff turn me into one was a dream.” Even though the Bengals (4-8) and Cowboys (5-7) have struggled this season, Selman thinks both teams have personalities that appeal to “The Simpsons” universe. “We were just so lucky also that the Cowboys are sort of like a Homer Simpson-type team, American team, and Mike McCarthy might be a Homer-type guy, one might imagine,” he said. ”And then you have Joe Burrow on the other side who is a cool young, spiky-haired, blonde bad boy -- he’s like Bart. And that fits our character archetypes so perfectly. “If Homer is mad at Bart and has a hot dog dream while watching ’Monday Night Football’, and then it’s basically McCarthy versus Burrow, Homer versus Bart, and that’s the simple father versus son strangling — Homer strangling Bart dynamic that has been part of the show for 35 years. I don’t know if that would have worked as well if it was like Titans versus Jacksonville. We would have found something. We would have made it work.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nflKyle McCord leads Syracuse to first eight-win regular season in six years with win over UConn

ITV viewers have spoken out in defence of two celebrities on I'm A Celeb after claims a recent challenge was 'fixed' against them. WAG Coleen Rooney and radio DJ Melvin Odoom were partnered together against two other celebrity couples on I'm A Celebrity. 4 Fans have claimed the odds were stacked against Melvin Odoom and Coleen Rooney in their latest ‘I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!’ challenge Credit: Rex 4 The pair had to reach up to collect tokens, which they found hard being on the shorter side Credit: Rex Tulisa and Barry McGuigan teamed up as the blue team, with GK Barry and Oti Mabuse in orange facing Coleen and Melvin on the pink team. Remaining housemates were also divided up amongst the three teams, and watched the Bushtucker Trial from a clearing. During the trial viewers at home noticed something which appeared to be unfair, as Coleen and Melvin had the odds stacked against them. As each pair had to reach up to collect tokens as insects and things were dropped on them, Melvin and Coleen who are shorter struggled to reach. More on I'm A Celeb SOMETHING FISHY Reverend Richard gagging as he struggles to swallow fish eye on I'm A Celeb THAT'S AMOORE Jane Moore returns to I'm A Celeb hotel and reunites with Ruth Langsford One viewer wrote on X: " #ImACeleb well dodgy, the cage above Colleen and Melvin was covered in guts that didn’t fall through the holes while the others were bare and easy to get coins across ." Another shared: " gutted for Coleen and Melvin. height was not on their side ". " That trial was not fair on Coleen and Melvin! They are much shorter than other teams. So not fair ," said a third. The challenge came after fans thought they had spotted Coleen's true feelings about one celebrity camp mate when the teams were announced. Most read in News TV BIG BREAK ‘Women would be safer if men were under curfew,’ actor on new house arrest show TELLY CLAIM MasterChef's Gregg Wallace steps aside as star accuses him of 'sexualised' joke TOP TELLY BBC Scotland's Christmas schedule revealed - including Sir Alex Ferguson doc BALLSED UP Lorraine apologises on air for using phrase she 'didn't know' was a swear word Coleen joined forces with Loose Women star Jane Moore and radio DJ Dean McCullough , with Coleen appearing to be annoyed at being on a team with Dean. Before the challenge, Coleen had already predicted the teams would be divided as she predicted: "I think we might be put into teams, so team Alan, team Danny and team Dean ." I'm A Celebrity's Coleen Rooney makes savage dig about meeting Dean McCullough for the first time Coleen appeared to be less than impressed that she was forced to be alongside Wagatha Christie superfan Dean, and viewers were quick to spot it. One viewer wrote on social media: "Coleen is fuming to be on deans team." Another joked: "Coleen fuming she's on deans team lollll." Others pointed out the pink team wasn’t likely to perform the best as one viewer pointed out: “My heart goes out to poor Coleen what a team to be saddled with, Dean and Jane!" Another thought the same as they shared: "The two most annoying campmates, Jane and Dean on the same team... sorry to Melvin and Coleen... but I'm not rooting for pink team." I'm A Celebrity airs every day at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX. 4 Fans have said the challenge was 'fixed' so Coleen and Melvin wouldn't be able to reach the tokens needed Credit: Rex 4 The Piggy Bank challenge saw camp mates divided into three teams Credit: Rex