The Taylor Swift Effect is a real thing. Don’t believe me? Well, yesterday’s Super Bowl was watched by over 120 million people on CBS. That makes it the most-watched telecast in television history on a single network.
Here is the breakdown that CBS Sports sent out in a press release:
RECORD-SETTING VIEWERSHIP
Super Bowl LVIII is the most-watched program ever, averaging 123.4 million viewers across all platforms, up +7% vs. last year’s Super Bowl which was the previous record (115.1 million).
More than 200million viewers (202.4) watched all or part of Super Bowl LVIII across networks, the highest unduplicated total audience in history and up +10% vs. last year’s Super Bowl (184 million).
CBS LEADS THE WAY WITH LARGEST AUDIENCE EVER FOR SINGLE NETWORK
Super Bowl LVIII on CBS led the way with 120.0 million viewers, the largest audience in history for a single network.
Super Bowl LVIII capped off a record-setting season for CBS Sports. The NFL ON CBS scored the most-watched regular season since the NFL returned to CBS in 1998 as well as the Network’s best postseason viewership since 1998.
Those numbers are astounding. And CBS needs to pay Swift a bonus because she is a large part of those numbers. Cause let’s be real. The people who helped to break that record were not tuning in to watch the Kansas Chiefs play the San Fransisco 49ers or Usher. They were tuning in for the singer!
I watch the big game every year for the commercials. Others watch for the actual game. And some for the halftime show. However, yesterday, first-timers were checking out because she introduced them to a game that their fathers watched.
And that is amazing! Swift is bringing families together! My friendship bracelet is off to her.
UPDATE: Tracker starring Justin Hartley, which aired after the game, scored a touchdown with 18.4 million viewers and is expected to gain another 7 million by its next episode on Sunday.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was seen by 3.74 people.
And finally, CBS took the cake with this spin. @fter Midnight scored its most-watched episode ever with 2.03 million viewers. Why is that such a hard sell? The show has only been on since January 16th, and it airs at 12:35a. So it ain’t ever going to see those numbers again.
Tiësto was slated to be the first DJ to play throughout the whole Super Bowl on Sunday, but he had to pull out from the football game.
“Me and my team have been preparing something truly special for months, but a personal family emergency is forcing me to return home Sunday morning,” he wrote. “It was a tough decision to miss the game, but family always comes first. Thank you to the @NFL for the collaboration and looking forward to working with them to deliver something incredible together in the future!”
Family does come first, and hopefully, all is OK with them.
Since Tiësto had to bow out, he will be replaced by Kaskade.
Yesterday, the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Fransisco 49ers made it to the Super Bowl on February 11th in Las Vegas.
So, United Airlines added some direct flights in honor of the players and one of the players’ girlfriends.
There are three flights leaving MCI, aka Kansas City, Missouri, and they are UA 1989 as if I need to explain that, UA 2287 in honor of Taylor Swift’s song and Travis Kelce’s jersey #, and finally US 1587 for Patrick Mahomes and Kelce.
I wonder how many people are going to try to get on UA !989! More than will get on the SF to Vegas flights UA 1995 and UA 1849. I am not going to research why those numbers are significant. All I care about are the Traylor ones!
Oh, and the singer won’t be on any of those flights. That is because she will most likely be doing a private flight from Tokyo to make it to the game in time. She has a concert in Japan on the 9th
Apple Music and the NFL announced this morning that Usher is headlining the Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show on CBS on February 11th.
“Usher is the ultimate artist and showman. Ever since his debut at the age of 15, he’s been charting his own unique course. Beyond his flawless singing and exceptional choreography, Usher bares his soul,” said Jay-Z.
Usher hasn’t had a Top 10 hit on the Billboard 200 since 2012. So you have to wonder how many people rejected the offer before him. Considering U is the 21st letter in the alphabet. That is a lot of musicians.
Poor Vanilla Ice was so close to getting his big chance.
Ed Sheeran is one of the biggest Rock Stars in the World, so it would make sense that people would want him to do the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
One of those people is Andy Cohen, so the Sirius-XM host asked the singer if he would do it. And the answer is yes and no.
What? He would do it if he was a guest, but he would not do it by himself. Why? He said, “I don’t have pizazz.” “Like, all of these amazing performers [Prince, Michael Jackson, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Beyoncé]. I’m just not that. I’m not gonna have dancers on stage. I’m not gonna have fireworks and blah blah.”
As perfect as I think he would be, he is not wrong. You need to go big or go home. And he is not a go-big sort of guy.
He would be lame like Coldplay was when they got the gig. That band really needed Sheeran to save them. But it didn’t work out for whatever reason. That’s Sheeran almost joined them on the football field.
