Super Bowl viewers turned off Bad Bunny’s halftime show in somewhat significant numbers, quarter-hour ratings data from Nielsen show.
The quarter-hour viewership numbers were as follows:
- 7:45–7:59 p.m. ET: 137.9 million (134.3M on NBC, 3.6M on Telemundo)
- 8–8:14 p.m. ET: 135.9 million (132.1M on NBC, 3.8M on Telemundo)
- 8:15–8:29 p.m. ET: 128.2 million (123.4M on NBC, 4.8M on Telemundo)
Bad Bunny’s performance occurred during the latter window. This was a decline of 7% from the game’s peak viewership of 137.9 million in the second quarter, and 5.7% from the immediately preceding quarter-hour. Bad Bunny’s performance was entirely in Spanish; as the numbers show, the viewership on Telemundo went up during his performance. (The international numbers for the game and halftime show are not out yet.)
Most years, the audience grows from the end of the second quarter into the halftime show, but last year’s Kendrick Lamar performance also lost about 4% from the end-of-game action at the half.
Bad Bunny is in the conversation with Taylor Swift as being the most popular global recording artist right now, but he is polarizing with conservative audiences. U.S. President Donald Trump ripped the NFL for booking Bad Bunny at halftime, and Turning Point USA put on an alternative halftime show starring Kid Rock that peaked at more than five million concurrent viewers across several YouTube and Rumble accounts (a number that would grow with multiple users per screen).
The Super Bowl halftime show is booked by Apple, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, and the NFL.
It bears mentioning that both this year and last year had two-score leads at halftime, and viewers are more apt to stay tuned for close games. The NFL said the Bad Bunny performance set social media records, with more than 4 billion views within 24 hours.
Ultimately, Super Bowl LX averaged 124.9 million viewers, the second-highest number ever, but down 2% from last year. This Super Bowl’s peak viewership was an all-time record, however.
