The Taylor Swift Effect is real, and a clear win for NFL ratings.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ nail-biting win over the New York Jets on Sunday Night Football averaged about 27 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, according to NBC Sports.
This makes it the most-watched Sunday TV broadcast since Super Bowl LVII this past February.
Swift was spotted in a box suite and was seated alongside Patrick Mahomes’ wife, Brittany. Also in the suite were her pals Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, as well as actor Hugh Jackman.
NBC Sports noted that this is also a 22% increase from last year’s Week 4 game, which was when the Chiefs took on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tom Brady was still playing for Tampa Bay at the time.
How does Swift play into this?
Well, the network noted that the game saw a surge in female viewers.
“Viewership among teen girls (age 12-17) spiked 53% from the season-to-date average of the first three weeks of SNF, while the audience among Women aged 18-24 was up 24%, and Women 35+ increased 34%,” a news release stated. “The collective growth resulted in an approximate viewership increase of more than two million female viewers.”
The pop singer’s attendance has definitely been beneficial for the NFL.
When she was in Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce’s suite during Week 3’s game against the Chicago Bears, it ended up being the highest-rated football game that weekend. The game amassed 24.3 million viewers and was the most-watched telecast of the week on any network, according to Fox Sports PR.
The network noted the game ranked #1 among females ages 12-17 and 18-49.
All of this is fueled by romance rumors involving Taylor Swift and Kelce.
The two have been reportedly “hanging out” for a while and Swifties have been majorly invested in this love story.
After the two were seen together almost two weeks ago, Kelce’s jersey became a hot item, surging nearly 400%, Fanatics told TMZ Sports.
Just last week, the two-time Super Bowl champion touched on the budding romance on his podcast but didn’t go into too much detail.
“Shoutout to Taylor for coming through and seeing me rock the stage,” he said with a smile regarding Sept. 24’s game.
“What’s real is that it’s my personal life,” he continued. “I’m enjoying life and I sure as hell enjoyed this weekend. Everything moving forward and me talking about sports and saying ‘alright now’ will have to be kind of where I keep it.”
