Cyana Rawji/staff reporter
This year’s Super Bowl was watched by an average of 123.4 million people in the US, making it the most watched broadcast in the history of television thanks to the “Taylor Swift effect”.
The world tuned in for the most anticipated sporting event of the year where three-time champion, the Chiefs defeated the 49ers on Sunday Feb 11, at the Allegiant stadium in Las Vegas. The game reached a total of 202.4 million viewers which makes Super Bowl 58, the most streamed game ever. This feature will take a dive into the “Taylor effect” on this year’s Super Bowl.
The buzzing of this years Super Bowl was extremely increased due to the information that singer, Taylor Swift was going to be attending to cheer on her boyfriend and Kansa city Chiefs player, Travis Kelce. This brought an entirely new audience to the game and potentially new Chief fans.
“Swifties” were glued to their screens when Taylor was shown during the game on cameras having a blast in her suite alongside actress, Blake Lively and rapper, Ice Spice. They were seen taking shots while cheering on the Chiefs.
The game was not only the most watched in Super Bowl history, though, as it was also the second most watched TV programme of all time – being usurped only by the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.According to Radio Times.
Variety states, the number of people who viewed any portion of the telecast at 202.4 million, up 10% from last year’s 184 million. “Sunday’s game improved on that number by 7%”.
According to Forbes, among Generation Z respondents 24% said they had greater interest and with millennials it was 20%. A data and analytics company found nearly 20% cited the Taylor Swift relationship with Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce as a key reason in tune into this year’s Super Bowl.
Though the Taylor swift effect did bring a larger audience and excitement to the game and for the Chiefs, it also brought disappointment and drama among the crowd. Some fans suspected the “Swifties” would distract from the game and were only rooting for the Cheifs due to Taylor Swift.
Later, Variety claims 20% of Super Bowl viewers were only rooting for Chiefs because of the singer’s relationship with Kelce.
“I think Taylor Swift is a distraction for the NFL”, to which 34 per cent of those surveyed responded with “somewhat” or “completely” agree, while 32 per cent neither agree nor disagree and 34 per cent “somewhat” or “completely” disagree, according to the researcher.
Social media videos on Tik Tok show after the Chiefs’ win, when Taylor went on the field to congratulate her boyfriend with an on-screen kiss, she was booed continuously. This was not shown on camera.
According to a survey I took at a local bar on superbowl day, most said they were “irritated” by the “Swifties” and Taylor being at the game and on camera due to it being “distracting” to the game. Most also bet against the chiefs because it was claimed to be the “Swifties team”.
Gleneagle students would find this feature piece interesting because almost everyone tunes in to watch the Super Bowl whether they like football or not. It’s the most exciting and famous event to watch and having Taylor Swift there is more appealing to our age range.
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