Big Kelce plays to lead to CBS’ Swift cutaways
LAS VEGAS – When solving for how many times CBS will show Taylor Swift on its Super Bowl 58 broadcast on Sunday, consider The Law of (Travis) Kelce.
Let Mike Arnold, lead game director for the NFL on CBS, explain.
“If Travis Kelce makes a big play, we’re probably going to show her,” Arnold told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. “If he has a quiet game, we probably won’t show her as much.”
Swift’s romance with the Kansas City Chiefs tight end has been the predominant pop culture talking point for months. The noise has peaked ahead of the Chiefs’ championship game appearance against the San Francisco 49ers.
Swift has a show in Tokyo the night before the big game. But the working assumption is that she will attend, as she has for 12 Chiefs games during the 2023 regular season and playoffs. And if Swift makes it to Allegiant Stadium on Sunday, there is little doubt the cameras will find her and stay trained in the direction of whichever luxury suite she occupies.
“Obviously, if she has a great reaction, we’re going to show it,” CBS lead game producer Jim Rikhoff told USA TODAY Sports.
Outcries over the amount of times NFL broadcasts have cut to Swift during games – overblown and disingenuous as they may be – have peaked as this Super Bowl approaches. On Monday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell dispelled – both in serious and tongue-incheek manners – that the league had a hand in making sure the Chiefs reached the season’s final game.
Arnold cited The New York Times report that determined Swift is shown for roughly 25 seconds (out of more than three hours) in games she has attended and that her name is rarely mentioned.
“It’s a three-second cutaway shot of her after a Travis Kelce play,” Arnold said. “I could have taken a crowd shot or whatever. So, that (criticism) doesn’t really get to me.”
The No. 1 rule of live CBS Sports production, Rikhoff said, is that whatever is shown must happen organically.
During a Buffalo Bills-Philadelphia Eagles game Nov. 26, Rikhoff recalled, the production truck navigated the presence of another celebrity actor Bradley Cooper in Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie’s suite.
“If it complements the broadcast organically, we do it,” Rikhoff said. “If not, we don’t force it.”
In the case of Swift, Rikhoff said they would likely show her early in the telecast Sunday to establish for viewers she indeed made the panPacific trip.
The first game the top CBS team had with Swift in attendance was an Oct. 22 game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Chiefs. Rikhoff said the network showed Swift more than it would have in an entire typical game because Kelce had nearly 150 receiving yards by the end of the second quarter. In the next “Swift” game CBS had, Kelce’s production diminished, and so 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 come Sunday.
Will one be dedicated solely to Swift?
“We’ll make sure she’s chronicled well,” Rikhoff said. “We have a good plan for that. We’re comfortable.”