All affiliates in Arkansas are showing Bad Bunny at halftime
I do believe it’s required.
Bunny Bowl would be clever
Here in the Seattle market, the Sinclair network is ABC, NBC is not part of that group, so we don’t have to worry. 
Every affiliate in the country will carry the full halftime show. Sinclair or other
Barring some unknowable weirdness.
If the MAGAs wanna move to that other channel they’ll have to push the remote.
Well, the hype strategy is going to succeed in at least one household, because my kids tell me that Bad Bunny matters and we’re watching the game. So that’s that.
I’m curious to see whether it’ll be a straightforward performance, or some veiled political jab, or some outright statement. I’m sure I’ll approve of that, whether the music grabs me or not.
I predict it will be very straightforward. It’s not like these things are improvised. The NFL had to approve it.
…and no matter what, people on both sides will be looking for and “seeing” signals or implied messages in every choice of track, staging, guest player, wardrobe, or left shark.
Usher and Rihanna are classics at this point. Their first major works were 20 to 25 years ago.
Other reason I’m not really into the halftime shows is that, being like a massive event but only a 10-minute show, the performance tends to be washed out by the spectacle, and the time constraint makes it feel like a rushed NFL commercial break (which I guess it is). It’s hard for me to get into a show that I know is on a 10-minute shot clock. Few surprises.
I’ve actually watched a lot more Superbowls than I make it sound like, but honestly the only 3 performances I remember are Prince, Rihanna, and The Who. Prince is Prince and he brought some gravity to the affair. I don’t really know Rihanna but I know she’s a very big deal, it was recent, and she executed well.
The Who… well, I was excited to see them play an arena one more time, and they disappointed big time. I figured a band that always relied on heavy electric amplification couldn’t really go wrong, but the youthful energy wasn’t there. Daltry failed to stick the scream in “Won’t Get Fooled Again” or reach the high notes in “Baba O’Reilly” and so the whole performance couldn’t really land with me.
I might leave the TV on to the SB station so I can see ads. I have no interest in the HT show but I’ll leave it on as a show of solidarity…and just in case it counts in the Nielsen ratings…
This will be the second year in a row where I won’t recognize one song. I don’t listen to Rihanna but her songs are played enough everywhere that I knew them. Even with The Weeknd (a Canadian, how did we let that happen?) I recognized some of it.
If I were king there would be a Steve Morse halftime. He could transition between The Dregs, The Steve Morse Band, Flying Colors and Deep Purple.
That’s similar to me. Even in the rare times that I hadn’t heard of the performer, I’ll stream them and some of the songs will be familiar to me. I had heard of Bad Bunny prior to this mess but when I streamed his top songs, none of them were familiar at all. This of course says more about me than it does about BB
Turning Point USA. The reactionary right-wing movement started by Charlie Kirk.
I couldn’t tell you any of Bad Bunny’s songs, but I know that he’s popular among my students (mostly-suburban high-school-aged girls).
What the NFL approves and what actually happens on the stage aren’t always the same. They probably tightened the controls after Janet Jackson, but you can’t completely control what people do and say.
Also remember that the NFL is first and foremost a business. Money is more important than message, and a certain level of controversy is probably good for business.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a 7-second (or longer) delay for the halftime show to avoid a repeat of the Janet Jackson situation.
I think Who fans all over the world (I’m one) were disappointed. The thing is, The Who of 2010 was a pale pale shadow of the fire and brimstone band that blew people away at Leeds and Woodstock. If they had been slated in 2000 when John was still alive I think they might have acquitted themselves more honorably.
I thought Tom Petty did a pretty good job, and it was cool to see KISS do the pre-game set in '99.
Lots of moving parts and a very tight timeline. It has to be practiced and choreographed well in advance. There isn’t a lot of wiggle room for improvisation.
That has, in fact, been the norm for the show since the Jackson incident.
Daltry has sounded better since then. I think he was having throat issues at the time. Not that he’s sounded Live at Leeds good, but not bad for an old guy.
[slight nitpick] Daltrey[/nitpick]