Fred Gaudelli has been the primary producer of the Super Bowl telecast on seven different occasions. If you like Latin numbers, Gaudelli has created Super Bowls XXXVII, XL, XLIII, XLVI, XLIX, LII and LVI. He was in the production truck for some of the most exciting NFL title games in history, including Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, which featured New England Patriots rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler blocking Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson at the line field goal with 20 seconds left to seal New England’s 28-24 victory over Seattle. That game averaged 114.4 million viewers, which ranked as the most-watched Super Bowl in US television history before last year’s Super Bowl took the title.
During his 33 seasons as a lead producer for a prime-time NFL televised game, which included stops on 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 were the producer of the game himself?
“I would consider it a gift from the gods,” Gaudelli said.
Gaudelli, because he lives on Planet Earth, knows that Swift is crossing over into popular culture and that means the potential for more eyeballs on the product. (If you’re a Swift hater, this track is going to be a rough summer for you, and it’s best to release it now.)
The challenge for the CBS Sports production team for Super Bowl LVIII, if Swift makes it to the game to watch boyfriend Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers — is navigating how often you embed images of singer on the relay.
The good news for the crew – led by producer Jim Rikhoff, director Mike Arnold and replay producer Ryan Galvin – is that they had a lot of Chiefs this year, including the divisional round game in Buffalo and the AFC Championship Game in Baltimore. in which Swift participated. It would be editorially remiss not to show Swift during gameplay, but at the same time, how much do you show her?
Then there’s a new question: How much does the Super Bowl, a game that includes millions of first-time football viewers for that season, factor into 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 his kids. We had (Bengals quarterback) Joe Barrow’s parents and girlfriend. We had Cooper Kupp’s (Rams wide receiver) wife. We had Andrew Whitworth’s wife and children. We had Ja’Marr Chase’s (Bengals wide receiver) mom and dad. You set up these shots because they are part of the story of the game and because there are five times more people (watching) than you would for a normal game. Right after that, you’re already thinking about who’s in the game and in LA we had celebrities like LeBron James and Jay-Z. (Director) Drew Esokoff was cutting those shots during the game. So when Stafford threw a pass, there’s a shot of Stafford’s wife. Is Burrow on the ground writhing in pain? You see his mom and dad and his girlfriend with a look of complete concern.
“Now you have Taylor Swift, who is also someone who has a direct connection to the game because she’s a significant other to one of the stars of a team. “Maybe you don’t show her for every Kelce sequence, but it will be part of the sequences when he makes a play.”
The talk time that Swift has achieved during NFL games is much less than some people think. New York Times writer Benjamin Hoffman wrote a great piece this week chronicling “the discrepancy between how many times Swift has been shown versus how many times people seem to think she’s been shown.” He reported that Swift was on screens 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 Jan. 13.
“You can’t help but blow it up,” said Tracy Wolfson, who will be on the Chiefs’ sideline for the Super Bowl. “I can’t tell you the number of dads who have come up to me and said, ‘My daughter now watches football because of Taylor Swift.’ I mean, why wouldn’t you take advantage of it or take advantage of it? It’s great for the NFL and it’s great for ratings.”
Fox’s telecast of the Chiefs’ game against the Chicago Bears on Sept. 24 set the standard for Swift’s coverage because the network had to understand everything immediately. Lead producer Richie Zyontz said his crew had no official word from the NFL or the Chiefs that Swift would be in attendance. (That changed in the following weeks; Rikhoff knew that the night before the Chiefs-Bills game Swift would be there.) They had to figure out which camera operators to use for the shots and how many to use.
“We were in uncharted waters, being the first to face the situation,” Zyontz said this week, reflecting on that game. “Moderation came to mind immediately. As the season progressed, there were too many knee-jerk reactions, yet these were the shots that were talked about and written about on Monday. For the Super Bowl, there will be millions of new viewers because of her. Let us hope that good judgment will prevail. But for those complaining, come on, it’s a few seconds at a time, sometimes a game. Is it really scary?’
“You can’t help but put her on the air,” Tracy Wolfson, who will be working the Chiefs’ Super Bowl sideline for the CBS broadcast, says of Taylor Swift. (Jason Hanna/Getty Images)
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 sitting in at the stadium. So there will be no problems for the CBS show production to find her. CBS will ask to interview the singer. (If there’s a bet on getting Swift interviewed on camera, I’d bet no.) Gandelli said a production’s best plan would be to go through the Chiefs, who would relay the request to her through Kelce. You would also ask if he wanted to do anything off camera.
“We didn’t make that request during the season because we didn’t think it rose to that level at that point,” said Gaudelli, who now serves as an executive producer for NBC’s NFL coverage. “But, yeah, I think you put it on for the Super Bowl. You’ll try to get her on the pregame show.”
Expect some guaranteed graphics in the postgame. If the Chiefs win, there will surely be a CBS camera operator following Kelce.
“As a producer and a director, he’s one of the main guys you want to see at the end of the game because he’s an important part of his dynasty if they win,” Gaudelli said. “Where he is, she will be. You don’t really have to go far to hunt. You will be looking for the number 87.”
One person watching all of this with sheer amusement is Ian Eagle, the CBS broadcaster who was the first national NFL broadcaster to acknowledge the Swift-Kelce connection. On a Kelce contact call during Kansas City’s 17-9 win over Jacksonville on Sept. 17, the Eagle cheekily threw a The “Kelce finds an empty space for the score” line.referring to a Swift song title.
“Kelce finds empty space to score”.
Ian Eagle makes a sneak reference on this Travis Kelce touchdown 👀
🎥 @NFLpic.twitter.com/pQNiqZdh88
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) September 17, 2023
“In September, there were some stories that connected Travis to Taylor, but it didn’t get a lot of coverage at that point,” Eagle said. “When Kelce scored a touchdown in Jacksonville, I threw ‘He finds an empty space for the score’ as a lark. I thought it was a cute fishing line, never imagining for a moment that it would blow up. I learned about Swift’s power in a hurry and all these months later interest has grown exponentially with this current Chiefs streak. The NFL was already huge. But the relationship has somehow created even more buzz for the league. I’m just happy for these two crazy kids.”
GO DEEPER
How Taylor Swift could make it to the Super Bowl from her Eras tour
(Top photo of Taylor Swift and her boyfriend: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
