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Taylor Swift boosts NFL viewership — again

krysyan edler
·3 min read
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Taylor Swift reacts as she leaves Met Life Stadium after watching an NFL football game between the New York Jets and the Kansas City Chiefs, Monday, Oct. 2, 2023, in East Rutherford, N.J.

Taylor Swift attended her second-consecutive Kansas City Chiefs game on Sunday, and once again, her presence led viewership numbers to skyrocket.

Sunday’s broadcast averaged 27 million viewers, which was the most for a Sunday NFL game since the Chiefs beat the Eagles in the Super Bowl earlier this year, Deadline reported. Viewership even reached 29 million in the second quarter.

Sunday’s game fell just short of the 27.5 million average that tuned into the season’s first and most-watched game: the Chiefs’ loss to the Detroit Lions on Thursday, Sept. 7.

The Chiefs matchup against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday night in Week 4 last season only averaged 22.2 million viewers.

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On Sunday, the camera cut to the global pop superstar 17 times during NBC’s broadcast, according to Billboard. Those shots of Swift, who was at the game to watch her new beau Travis Kelce, appeared to pay off.

Female viewership saw the biggest increase on Sunday. The following female viewer demographics experienced a jump:

  • Girls ages 12-17 increased by 53%.

  • Women ages 18-24 increased by 24%.

  • Women over the age of 35 increased by 34%.

When Swift attended the Chiefs’ home game against the Bears on Sept. 24, viewership for females ages 18-49 increased 63% from the Chiefs’ previous game, Front Office Sports’ David Rumsey reported on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.

Swift attended Sunday’s game with celebrities Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Sophie Turner, Sabrina Carpenter and Hugh Jackman. She was also seen talking to Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ wife Brittany Mahomes and Kelce’s mom Donna Kelce, who arrived late after watching her eldest son, Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles, play earlier in the day.

The singer is also boosting ticket interest for Chiefs games. Attending an NFL game is a cheaper alternative to Swift’s “The Eras Tour,” as the Deseret News previously reported.

After news first broke that Swift could be in attendance at New York’s MetLife Stadium — she does own a home in New York — the demand for tickets to Sunday’s game leaped.

Traffic on Vivid Seats’ Chiefs-Jets game page increased by over 173%, the Deseret News reported.

What are football fans saying about the Swift-centric ‘Sunday Night Football’ broadcast?

Several football fans were not pleased with Swift taking over the broadcast of the Jets-Chiefs game. They took to X to share their frustrations.

Here are some of the best reactions: