Before the big Sunday night sports fest, dozens of pups will tackle each other for the pre-game Puppy Bowl shows — and because they’re puppies, and that’s what they do. The starting lineup has been revealed, and they are cute enough to make the toughest NFL players weep.
This year’s event, which airs on Animal Planet from 3-5 p.m. EST, will be the first time the Puppy Bowl is keeping an actual competitive score — usually it’s a bunch of baby dogs flopping all over each other, and no one really cares about who’s winning because everyone is blinded by unnaturally adorable puppy fluffballs. But the bar has been raised, pitting team Fluff against Ruff.
To make matters more unbearably cute, the 2015 lineup will be joined by a team of goat cheerleaders.
Fans can visit the Puppy Bowl website to view the six-part pregame show series leading up to game day, watch the live Puppy Cam, and even participate in a little fantasy pupball.
Source: http://mashable.com/2015/01/22/2015-puppy-bowl-lineup/
Why it matters:
I think this is a fantastic example of taking something totally unrelated to football and turning it into its own event! Animal Planet does a great job every year of hyping this up to becoming something people look forward to. Advertising revenue for the 2013 show was up 19 percent over 2012, and drew a number of new advertisers. For the first time, Animal Planet allowed commercial branding of its “stadium” in 2013 as well. It was referred to throughout the program as the “GEICO Puppy Bowl Stadium”. This year, they added fantasy pupball making this an interactive event as well. And besides, who doesn’t like to see puppies rolling around all day?