Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl would be a 'gift from the gods' for the CBS broadcast

Fred Gaudelli was the lead producer of the Super Bowl television broadcast seven times. If you like Roman numerals, Gaudelli has produced Super Bowls XXXVII, XL, XLIII, XLVI, XLIX, LII and LVI. He has been in the production truck for some of the most exciting NFL title games in history, including Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, in which New England Patriots rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler intercepted Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson at the goal line with 20 seconds left. to go. seal New England's 28-24 come-from-behind victory over Seattle. That game averaged 114.4 million viewers, which ranked as the most-watched Super Bowl in American television history before last year's Super Bowl took the title.

During his 33 seasons as lead producer for an NFL primetime TV game, including stops at ABC, ESPN, NBC and Amazon Prime Video, Gaudelli has produced countless NFL games with famous people in the stands. How would he feel about the prospect of Taylor Swift attending Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas on February 11 if he produced the game?

“I would consider it a gift from the gods,” Gaudelli said.

Gaudelli knows, because he lives on Planet Earth, that Swift is crossing over into popular culture and that means the potential for more attention to the product. (If you're a Swift hater, this piece will be one cruel summer for you, and it is best to save you now.)

The challenge for the CBS Sports production team for Super Bowl LVIII, as Swift makes it to the game to watch friend Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers, is to determine how often you view images of the singer in recording the game. broadcast.

The good news for the crew – led by producer Jim Rikhoff, director Mike Arnold and replay producer Ryan Galvin – is that they've had their fill of the Chiefs this year, including the divisional round game in Buffalo and the AFC Championship Game in Baltimore, both of which Swift was present. It would be an editorial oversight not to show Swift during the game, but how much do you show her at a time?

Then there's a new question: How much influence does the Super Bowl, a game that involves millions of people watching football for the first time that season, influence your decisions to show it?

“Let's go to the last Super Bowl I did,” Gaudelli said of the Los Angeles Rams' win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Feb. 13, 2022. “We had (Rams quarterback) Matthew Stafford, his wife and kids. We had (Bengals quarterback) Joe Burrow's parents and girlfriend. We had (Rams wide receiver) Cooper Kupp's wife. We had (Rams offensive lineman) Andrew Whitworth's wife and kids. We had (Bengals wide receiver) Ja'Marr Chase's mom and dad. You set up these shots because they are part of the story of the game and because there are five times as many people (watching) as in a normal game. You immediately think about who is involved in the game, and in LA we had celebrities like LeBron James and Jay-Z. (Director) Drew Esocoff stopped those shots during the game. So when Stafford threw a touchdown pass, there's a recording of Stafford's wife. Burrow is on the ground writhing in pain? You see his father and mother and his girlfriend with the ultimate worried look.

“Now you have Taylor Swift, who is also someone who has a direct connection to the game because she is a partner of one of the stars of a team. You may not show her for every Kelce sequence, but she will be part of sequences when he makes a play.

The airtime Swift has received so far during NFL games is much less than some think. New York Times writer Benjamin Hoffman wrote a great piece this week which “captured the dissonance between the number of times Swift has been shown and the number of times people seem to think she has been shown.” He reported that Swift was on screen for less than 32 seconds in most games, with a maximum of 1 minute, 16 seconds for Peacock's coverage of the Chiefs against the Miami Dolphins on January 13.

“You can't help but put her on the air,” said Tracy Wolfson, who will be on the Chiefs' sideline for the Super Bowl. “I can't tell you how many dads have come up to me and said, 'My daughter now watches football because of Taylor Swift.' I mean, why not abuse it or take advantage of it? It's great for the NFL and it's great for the ratings.”

Fox's broadcast of the Chiefs' game against the Chicago Bears on September 24 set the template for Swift coverage, as the network had to figure everything out on the fly. Lead producer Richie Zyontz said his team had no official word from the NFL or the Chiefs that Swift would be in attendance. (That changed in later weeks; Rikhoff knew Swift would be there the night before the Chiefs-Bills game.) They had to figure out which camera operators to use for the shots and how many to use.

“We were in uncharted waters because we were the first to deal with the situation,” Zyontz said this week, reflecting on that match. “Moderation immediately came to mind. As the season progressed, there were too many knee-jerk reaction shots, yet these were the shots that were talked about and written about on Monday. Thanks to her, there will be millions of new viewers for the Super Bowl. Hopefully good judgment will prevail. But for those complaining, come on, it's a few seconds at a time, a few times a game. Is that really egregious?”

The Super Bowl will be very different. If Swift is at the game, the Chiefs and the NFL will know which suite Swift will be in at the stadium. So there won't be any problems for the CBS broadcast production to find her. CBS will make a request to interview the singer. (If there's a prop bet that Swift will be interviewed on camera, I'm willing to bet not.) Gaudelli said the best chance for a production would be to go through the Chiefs, who would make the request to her through Kelce pass along. You would also ask if she wanted to do something off camera.

“We didn't make that request during the season because we didn't think it would rise to that level at that point,” said Gaudelli, who now serves as executive producer for NBC's NFL coverage. “But yeah, I think you put that in for the Super Bowl. You'd try to get her on the pregame show.

Expect some guaranteed footage in the postgame. If the Chiefs win, a CBS cameraman will surely follow Kelce.

“As a producer and director, he is one of the main guys you want to see at the end of the game because he is an important part of his dynasty when they win,” Gaudelli said. “So where he is, she will be. You really don't have to hunt too far. You're looking for number 87.'

One person watching all of this with total amusement is Ian Eagle, the CBS broadcaster who was the first national NFL broadcaster to acknowledge the Swift-Kelce connection. During a Kelce touchdown call during Kansas City's 17-9 win over Jacksonville on September 17, Eagle brazenly threw a The line “Kelce finds an empty space for the score”referring to the title of a Swift song.

“Kelce finds an empty space for the score.”

Ian Eagle sneaks a reference into this Travis Kelce touchdown call 👀

🎥 @NFLpic.twitter.com/pQNiqZdh88

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) September 17, 2023

“In September, some stories emerged linking Travis to Taylor, but it didn't get any major attention at the time,” Eagle said. “When Kelce scored a touchdown in Jacksonville, as a lark I threw in, 'He finds an empty space for the score.' I thought it was a cute throwaway line, and couldn't imagine for a moment that it would blow up. I quickly learned about Swift's power, and all these months later, interest has grown exponentially with this Chiefs run. The NFL was already huge. But the relationship has somehow created even more buzz for the league. I'm just happy for those two crazy kids.”

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(Top photo of Taylor Swift and her boyfriend: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)