Radio host Chris Russo took aim at CBS for its amount of Taylor Swift coverage on its broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII.
The popstar was at Allegiant Stadium Sunday to cheer on her boyfriend Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs as they sealed back-to-back Super Bowl victories with a 25-22 overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers.
The 14-time Grammy Award winner has attended several of the tight end’s NFL games – 13 to be precise, her lucky number – and has regularly attracted attention across the networks, who have shown shots of her watching on from her VIP suites.
But Russo appeared to believe that CBS went too far during their broadcast of the big game.
‘They overdid it yesterday,’ Russo said, via Awful Announcing.
‘I mean, I don’t care if it’s only a split-second. They must’ve gone to that suite for Taylor Swift 9,000 times—way over the top. And I’m not one of those…Listen, I think it’s too much. I’m not that into it. I do think that’s a caring relationship, which I don’t think it’s fake; that I like.
‘I’ve seen it again on the field; I think there’s a future there, but they went to her way, way too many times. I didn’t count the amount of shots to that suite — it had to be 10 or 12 in the course of the game.’
However, while Russo felt it was overdone, CBS actually only showed for a total of 54 seconds – less than one percent of the entire time the game was on.
Despite Swift’s minimal occupation of the broadcast, 64-year-old Russo still claimed it was excessive.
‘It’s way over the top…It’s not so much the length; it’s just going to [her suite],’ Russo continued.
‘All they have to do is go there for a second. And if you only go there for 38 seconds, that means you can still go there 25 times — each time is a second and a half. ‘Hey, there she is! Oh, there she is! Kelce caught a ball; there she is. Chiefs are driving; there she is. Got her fingers crossed; there she is! I mean, it was just way too much.’
The singer has been praised by others for her effect on the NFL, in particular in attracting more female viewers to games.
This is the benefit of not being on Twitter and not caring about Twitter. You can give this take and not have to worry about the mob coming after you. Here’s @MadDogUnleashed ripping CBS for the absurd amount of Taylor Swift shots during the Super Bowl. pic.twitter.com/G8NTmTxXVF
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) February 12, 2024
But Russo, while acknowledging Swift’s appeal to a new demographic of football fans, suggested it was detracting from the sport’s original audience.
‘Listen, I know she’s a huge superstar. The New York Post put her on…the front page, ‘Welcome to Sin City,’ with Taylor Swift on the cover, all amongst the over participants in Super Bowl 58. So, you can make an argument they’re guilty, too,’ he said.
‘But this is CBS, and I understand you gotta show a little Taylor Swift, but they want way over the top. That’s my take. Now, you guys might feel differently, and if you’re a 13-year-old girl out there, or my daughter, for that matter, who cares; you can’t get enough of this.
‘Thirteen -year-old girls, 14-year-old and 17-year-old girls, and 23-year-old girls like Kiera Russo, they’re not football fans — they’re Taylor Swift fans. This is supposed to be a football audience, and it was way, way over the top.’
Swift attended 13 Chiefs games this season, with Kansas City holding a 10-3 record in those games.
She was in attendance at all four Chiefs playoff games this season, all of which were in different cities.
And the songstress made a mad dash back from Tokyo, where she had been performing her Eras Tour last week, to make it to Las Vegas in time for the Super Bowl Sunday.
She watched her boyfriend clinch his third Super Bowl ring alongside his mom Donna, brother Jason Kelce and her posse of A-List pals, including Blake Lively, Ice Spice and Keleigh Teller.
After the Chiefs hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, Swift, Kelce and co partied until 5.15am at XS nightclub at Wynn Las Vegas.
