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LAS VEGAS – When figuring out how many times CBS will show Taylor Swift on its Super Bowl 58 aired Sunday, consider (Travis) Kelce’s Law.
Let Mike Arnold, senior NFL game director at CBS, explain.
“If Travis Kelce makes a big play, we’ll probably show him that,” Arnold told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. “If he has a quiet game, we probably won’t show him as much.”
Swift’s romance with him Kansas City Chiefs The tight end has been the predominant topic of conversation in pop culture for months. The noise has peaked ahead of the Chiefs’ championship game ahead of the San Francisco 49ers.
Swift has a show in Tokyo, Japan, the night before the big game. But the working assumption is that he will attend, as he has for 12 Chiefs games throughout the regular season and 2023 playoffs. And if Swift arrives at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday, there’s no doubt the cameras will be on her. They will find and stay focused in the direction of whatever luxury suite you occupy.
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“Obviously, if she has a great reaction, we’ll show it,” CBS senior game producer Jim Rikhoff told USA TODAY Sports.
Outcry over the number of times NFL broadcasts have cut to Swift during games, as exaggerated and false as they may be, has reached a peak as this Super Bowl approaches. On Monday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell dispelled, both seriously and ironically, that the league had anything to do with ensuring the Chiefs made it to the final game of the season.
arnold cited the New York Times report that determined that Swift appears for approximately 25 seconds (out of more than three hours) of games he has attended and that his name is rarely mentioned.
“It’s a three-second shot of her after a Travis Kelce play,” Arnold said. “I could have taken a photo of the crowd or whatever. So that (criticism) doesn’t really affect me.”
The number one rule of CBS Sports live production, Rikhoff said, is that everything shown must happen organically. During a Buffalo Bills-Philadelphia Eagles game On Nov. 26, Rikhoff recalled, the production truck passed by another celebrity, actor Bradley Cooper, in the suite of Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie.
“If it complements streaming organically, we do it,” Rikhoff said. “If not, we don’t force it.”
In Swift’s case, Rikhoff said they would likely show her early in Sunday’s broadcast to establish for viewers that she did indeed make the pan-Pacific trip.
The first game CBS’ top team had with Swift in attendance was a game on October 22 Between the Los Angeles Chargers and Chiefs. Rikhoff said the network showed Swift more than she would have in a typical game because Kelce had nearly 150 receiving yards by the end of the second quarter. In the next “Swift” game that CBS had, Kelce’s production decreased, as did her screen time.
“It’s kind of what happens within the context of the game,” Rikhoff said.
Rikhoff and Arnold will have more than 165 cameras at their disposal on Sunday. Will one be dedicated solely to Swift?
“We’ll make sure it’s recorded well,” Rikhoff said. “We have a good plan for that. We are comfortable.”
