'The Thundermans Undercover' Premiere Gets Nickelodeon NFL Wild Card Leadout Slot
Chargers-Texans? Not in Secret Shores apparently
In a move that does nothing to ward off concerns about network health, Nickelodeon has announced that the series premiere of The Thundermans: Undercover, its The Thundermans follow-up, has been moved up to Saturday, January 11 as a sneak peek following its coverage of the NFL Wild Card Game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Houston Texans. The series’s official premiere will still be Wednesday, January 22, but will now be two episodes, likely episodes 1 and 2.
The series premiere “Thundercover” sets up the premise of the series pretty well, as Max and Phoebe (Jack Griffo and Kira Kosarin) bring Chloe (Maya LeClark) on an undercover mission assigned to them in Secret Shores by President Kickbutt, played by Daniele Gaither so she can experience life as a normal kid. The trio must stop the threats of Secret Shores and the true supervillain known as the Mastermind. Chloe does go to school, which means she’s able to make two friends Booch and Jinx that are played by series regulars Kinley Cunningham and Nathan Broxton, who Kosarin calls “made of joy and light”. For the first time, it seems Dana Snyder as the voice of pet rabbit and transformed supervillain Dr. Colosso is credited as series regular, and Daran Norris, who played Z-Force Commander Dirk Trumbo in four final season episodes including the original series finale, is playing Thunderford, a new virtual assistant. Considering Kickbutt demoted Trumbo to her assistant in that finale, maybe Thunderford was modeled after him, but it’s not made clear yet.
Other guest stars include much of the rest of the family, including Chris Tallman as dad Hank, Rosa Blasi as mom Barb, and Diego Velazquez as brother Billy. Also reprising their roles are Audrey Whitby as Phoebe’s best friend Cherry, Kenny Ridwan as Max’s friend Gideon, Helen Hong as Mrs. Wong, and Jeff Meachum as Principal Bradford, all of whom were given superpowers during the events of The Thundermans Return, last year’s reunion movie whose success led to the greenlight of Undercover. Ryan Ochoa and Jessica Marie Garcia are the known guest stars playing characters this series will introduce. The Thundermans: Undercover is executive produced by original series creator Jed Spingarn and series alums Sean W. Cunningham & Marc Dworkin. Kosarin and Griffo continue to serve as executive producers, with Kosarin also making her directorial debut with “Prank You, Next”. “Thundercover” is directed and executive produced by Trevor Kirschner, who directed Return. Production of the series for Nickelodeon Studios is overseen by Shauna Phelan, the Head of Nickelodeon & Awesomeness Live-Action, along with Executive with Brian Banks. Kosarin hopes the sneak peek makes us smile.
NFL Wild Card Game Live from Bikini Bottom reteamed SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star, played as always by Tom Kenny and Bill Fagerbakke once again in motion capture, with Nate Burleson as Ian Eagle, who had called all previous Nickelodeon broadcasts with Burleson, was calling the main CBS broadcast. Sandy Cheeks (voiced by Carolyn Lawrence) and NFL Slimetime's Dylan Schefter returned in their roles as sideline reporters while Dora Marquez (voiced by Diana Zermeño) once again did rule and penalty call explanations. The Nick-ified graphics and advanced augmented reality delivered hijinks throughout the game. This included a group of "Wild Cod," analogous to NFL superfans and the returning iconic Submarine Blimp, fully equipped to slime the stadium crowd. The Mutant Mayhem Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were this time on the field armed with pizza cannons shot at the crowd, while more Nickelodeon characters watched as fans in the stands, including the Transformers One iterations of Megatron and Optimus Prime, Arnold Shortman and Helga Pataki; Cat and Dog of CatDog as the one field down marker; Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Shadow from Sonic the Hedgehog 3; the Loud family, Wanda and Cosmo from The Fairly OddParents; Tommy Pickles, Chuckie Finster, and Reptar of Rugrats, and other surprise guest appearances, including network legend Marc Summers highlighting Tiny Chef’s concession stand and introduced a “Sweet Victory” encore before the start of the second half. A PAW Patrol-themed "SkyeCam"; and brand-new end zone clam cannons that fire slime, chum, Krabby Patties and more were utilized. The NVP trophy was being guarded at the Hidden Temple.
This situation is nothing new for kids TV, seen most recently in the Nickelodeon realm with The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish on May 17 before its actual May 20 premiere, as well as Rock Paper Scissors after Super Bowl LVIII on February 11 (and everything regarding its pilot beforehand). SpongeBob SquarePants and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had more distance between its “sneak peek” and “official premiere” in May and July 1999 and July and September 2018, after their respective years’ Kids Choice Awards and Kids Choice Sports Awards in the formers. And there are definitely examples I haven’t mentioned as to not dwell on it. Anyway, the public doesn’t know much of any of what is going on for Nickelodeon for the rest of the year outside of more SpongeBob and The Patrick Star Show. It would’ve been nice if something from further out in the year might have been ready, make for a longer range sneak peek, but that just means I’ll continue keeping an eye out.
