On Thursday evening, at New York’s Paley Center for Media, NBC Today anchor Savannah Guthrie moderated a panel with the team from NBC’s Sunday Night Football. So it stands to reason that she had to ask the tough questions.
“What do you know about Taylor Swift?” Guthrie said to Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth and the rest of the SNF team.
NBC’s game this week sees Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs taking on Zach Wilson and the New York Jets. It was looking like a snoozer, with the Chiefs dominant this season, and the Jets flailing after losing quarterback Aaron Rodgers to an injury just minutes into their first game of the season.
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And then Taylor Swift showed up in Kansas City last weekend.
Swift, who is rumored to be dating the Chiefs star Kelce, was captured on camera in the Kelce family suite, laughing with the tight end’s mom Donna, and chest-bumping another suite-mate after he caught a touchdown.
With Swift reported to be attending this weekend’s game at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to support Kelce, NBC has opted to go all-in on Swift to build buzz for the matchup.
A press release previewing the game was filled with references to Swift’s songs (“Are you ready for it?” the press release began, a reference to her song “…Ready for It?”), and NBC on Friday released a promo video called “Taylor Made for Sunday Night” featuring Swift’s hit song “Welcome to New York” as footage of the Jets and Chiefs play.
The promo closes with the footage from last week’s game of Kelce looking up at his suite and smiling at Swift.
Assuming Swift shows up, NBC is clearly hoping that she will bring a few million of her loyal Swiftie fans with her, who will tune in to the game on the broadcast network or Peacock.
As The Hollywood Reporter’s Carly Thomas noted, after Swift’s appearance at the game the sales of Kelce’s jersey spiked, as did downloads of his podcast New Heights. And tickets for Sundays game against the Jets have seen their resale prices skyrocket.
Back in New York, Guthrie ended her NFL panel discussion with friendship bracelets, which she handed out to the panelists… a tradition at Swift’s concerts.
“The entirety of my study week has been with Taylor Swift playing in the background,” Collinsworth said.
NBC is hoping the Swift pivot will pay off on Sunday.
