The 2021 Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is fast-approaching, and the big game traditionally means big things even for those who don't care about football. Super Bowl commercials famously pull out all the stops to fill the minutes between the game action, bringing in famous faces, bizarre plots, and usually big movie and TV trailers. Now, with the rebrand of streaming service CBS All Access to Paramount+ in the not-too-distant-future, the stars of some hit shows coming to the streamer are out to hype the change, including Star Trek's Patrick Stewart, Dora the Explorer, Beavis and Butt-Head, young Sheldon Cooper, and more.
Considering that the 90-second commercial is set on the top of a snowy mountain, I think it's safe to say that Dora the Explorer makes sense as one of the first famous faces to climb to the summit! As for some of the others, it's understandable that they might have been toward the back of the group. Paramount+ went ahead and released the Super Bowl ad days before the big game, and you can see the big names brought out to hype the streaming service. Take a look:
Star Trek: Picard star Patrick Stewart may have been the one welcoming others to the top of Mount Paramount and The Late Show's Stephen Colbert might be the one tending bar, but they're definitely not the only big names in this Super Bowl 2021 commercial. In fact, not everybody even had to be live-action to get the invitation, apparently! Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob (who is getting his own upcoming spinoff) are among the animated characters to make the climb.
Patrick Stewart also isn't the only Star Trek star on the mountain, with Star Trek: Discovery actors Anson Mount (Christopher Pike) and Ethan Peck (Spock) in costume and on hand as well. Throw in Survivor's Jeff Probst complete with tiki torch, longtime CBS star Shemar Moore, the Late Late Show host and Golden Globe nominee James Corden, who The Good Fight's Christine Baranski noted didn't actually climb, Blue Bloods' Tom Selleck, and even more called upon to dance like the metaphors they are with Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
Patrick Stewart cleared up the metaphor for viewers who might have been dazzled by SpongeBob's musical number to say that they would all live on Paramount+ as a "mountain of entertainment," which "is also a streaming service." The commercial closed by confirming that Paramount+ would include live sports, breaking news, and entertainment from all the shows represented on the mountain. All things considered, if this ad doesn't hype Super Bowl fans up for CBS All Access rebranding as Paramount+ on March 4, I'm not sure that anything can!
The rebranding of CBS to Paramount+ was confirmed back in September 2020, with the news that exclusive original series were on the way from CBS, BET, MTV, and Parmount as well as the live sports, news coverage, and entertainment. In a new year that has already seen the premiere of a new streaming service to join the fray already filled with major streamers, Paramount+ pulling out the stops to try and woo what is likely going to be a huge Super Bowl audience was undoubtedly a smart move.
See this commercial live on Super Bowl Sunday on CBS February 7, and check out Paramount+ when it launches on March 4.
