'Sunday Night Football' Scores High Ratings with Swifties and Jets, Chiefs Fans Tuning In
The fact that Taylor Swift was there at MetLife Stadium on Sunday night may have contributed to the game becoming the most viewed of the season.
According to NBC Sports, the Kansas City Chiefs vs. New York Jets game, which Taylor Swift attended, drew an average audience of 27 million viewers, making it the most viewed Sunday TV programme since the Super Bowl.
The network reports that during the second quarter of the game, between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m., the "Sunday Night Football" audience peaked at 29.4 million people.
Kansas City triumphed 23–20.
Preliminary Nielsen data was used by the network to report that the largest demographic gains, as compared to an average of the first three weeks of "Sunday Night Football," were among girls aged 12 to 17 (53%), women aged 18 to 24 (24%) and women over 35 (34%).
Final numbers won't be available until Tuesday, according to a Nielsen representative.
The parent business of NBC News, NBCUniversal, owns NBC Sports.
Once word spread that Swift, the friend and potential love interest of Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce, would be attending "Sunday Night Football" at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, the game undoubtedly attracted attention from followers of conventional football.
The network declared that Sunday's match was the most viewed pro football game of the season, citing Taylor Swift's attendance as the reason for the game's increased national interest.
When the Detroit Lions defeated Kansas City on NBC in the season opener on September 7, an average of 26.8 million viewers watched the Chiefs-Jets game, surpassing the previous viewing high of this young season, according to the network.
The guy in charge of calling the game, Mike Tirico, stated that his crew in the booth knew it was important to recognise the one-woman worldwide sensation during Sunday's prime-time show.
On Monday's episode of NBC's "Today," he stated, "It was a lot of our preparation."
According to Tirico, the team needed to find a way to acknowledge Swift's presence without going overboard.
He remarked, "It was one of those things where you had to find the right spot, right?" "Because Sunday nights are probably when we aren't with many of the Swifties who were so involved. We reasoned that we just needed to acknowledge the "elephant in the room" by saying "hello" to them at the beginning of each game and continuing to do so as often as possible."
It appeared that even gamblers, who were improbable to be Swifties, were aware of the Traylor surge.
Every pro football weekend, sportsbooks offer wagers on individual player performances.
On Sunday, for instance, DraftKings wagerers could have placed bets on whether or not Kelce would score a touchdown or if his longest reception of the game would be longer than 21.5 yards.
According to DraftKings on Monday, the two Kelce options were the most well-liked "prop" wagers of the pro football weekend. As per the Boston-based sports gaming organisation, the total amount of bets placed on Kelce on Sunday was twice the sum of all the bets placed on Kelce over the preceding three weeks.
Similar reports of Kelce-mania came from BetMGM, which recorded seven times as many wagers on the tight end on Sunday than it did during Kansas City's previous encounter with the Chicago Bears.
According to Caesars Sportsbook, the total amount placed on Sunday's Chiefs-Jets game was 14% more than the next most wagered game of the whole early season. Caesars Sportsbook is located in Nevada.
The Minnesota Vikings will host the Chiefs on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET (3:25 p.m. in Minneapolis). Swift's presence at U.S. Bank Stadium is unknown.
That Chiefs game, unlike the Jets game on Sunday, will not be shown nationally.