Sunday Night Football's Texans-Chiefs Game Getting EA Sports Madden NFL Cast: Everything to Know
It’s Patrick Mahomes and C.J. Stroud like you’ve never seen them before.
Sure, it’s one thing to talk about NFL quarterbacks like the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and the Houston Texans’ C.J. Stroud putting up video game numbers. But it’s another thing entirely to watch them air it out on the field as if they really are playing inside an actual video game.
But something pretty darn close to that is what Peacock viewers can expect from a first-of-its-kind broadcast of the upcoming matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans. In partnership with EA Sports’ Madden NFL 25, Peacock will be live streaming an alternate feed of the Texans-Chiefs game (kicking off at 1 p.m. ET on December 21) that fuses the addictive gameplay elements from the immensely popular Madden NFL 25 video game with the actual live action as it unfolds on the field.
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What to know about Peacock’s EA Sports Madden NFL Cast of the Texans-Chiefs game on December 21
Announced during halftime of NBC and Peacock’s Thanksgiving Day broadcast between the Miami Dolphins and Green Bay Packers, the first-ever EA Sports Madden NFL Cast will reimagine live football by incorporating features from Madden NFL 25 right into the action in a way that’ll feel amazingly familiar to fans of the video game itself.
Nope, you won’t need an actual game controller in your hand to enjoy what’s happening on the screen — but it’ll look and feel pretty close to a real-time watch party for a Madden NFL 25 matchup... with the added twist that it’s all overlaid on top of a real NFL game, and hosted by some of your favorite NFL names!
What is Peacock's EA Sports Madden NFL Cast of Texans-Chiefs?
Check out Peacock’s mind-blowing description of the EA Sports Madden NFL Cast: Blending video game elements and live action, the stream will be an immersive, data-powered live football experience that injects Madden NFL’s unique brand elements as animated overlays. Featuring live EA Sports Madden NFL 25 graphics, route trees, play cards and player ratings, the Madden NFL Cast will transform football strategy, information and IQ for viewers, enabled by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats and GeniusIQ, Genius Sports’ next generation data and AI platform. GeniusIQ combines real-time data insights with fully branded animations, delivering an immersive viewing experience.
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Pretty cool, right? Adding to the immersion in this innovative crossover between video game and live action will be an all-pro cast of on-air voices, including NBC Sports’ Paul Burmeister handling play-by-play duty while former NFL quarterback, YouTuber, and Madden NFL expert Kurt Benkert employs graphic overlays to discuss and predict play options.
On top of that, six-time Cincinnati Bengals Pro Bowl wide receiver Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson — a guy who frequently discussed his own Madden rating in production meetings with the legendary John Madden — will serve as a real-time player “ratings adjuster.” The Chiefs and Texans might keep Ochocinco especially busy for this one, too: Between the two teams, there are no fewer than 11 players entering the December 21 contest who hold a Madden rating above 90 (including Chiefs stars Mahomes and Travis Kelce, two of only six players overall to begin the current NFL season in the “Madden 99 Club,” which features players with 99 player ratings).
Where to watch EA Sports Madden NFL Cast of Texans-Chiefs?
The Madden alternative cast will stream exclusively on Peacock, on Saturday, December 21 at 1 p.m. ET.
Alongside Peacock’s exclusive EA Sports Madden NFL Cast, NBC Sports’ award-winning Texans-Chiefs coverage will also be presented on Saturday, December 21 at 1 p.m. ET across NBC, Peacock, and Universo, with a special Football Night in America kicking things off at 12 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
What is Madden 25?
The Madden franchise is a long-running NFL video game series, named after NFL icon and announcer John Madden. The series dates all the way back to 1988, when the first John Madden Football game was released on the Apple II computer. Since then, the series has been a staple of the sports video game landscape for decades, with releases across every generation of video game consoles remaining as popular as ever all the way up to Madden NFL 25 on the current Playstation 5 and Xbox consoles.
