Radio host Chris Russo took aim at CBS for the amount of attention Taylor Swift received during the Super Bowl LVIII broadcast.
The pop star was at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday to cheer on her boyfriend Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs as they sealed back-to-back Super Bowl victories with a 25-22 overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers.
The fourteen-time Grammy Award winner has attended several tight end NFL games – thirteen to be precise, her lucky number – and has regularly attracted attention from the networks, who have shown photos of her watching from her VIP suites .
But Russo seemed to believe that CBS went too far during their broadcast of the big game.
“They overdid it yesterday,” Russo said via Awful Annuncing.
Taylor Swift cheered on her boyfriend Travis Kelce and the Chiefs during Super Bowl LVIII
Radio host Chris Russo took aim at CBS for the amount of Swift coverage on air
“I mean, I don’t care, even if it’s just for a split second. They must have been to that suite for Taylor Swift 9,000 times – way too exaggerated. And I’m not one of those… Listen, I think it’s too much. I’m not that concerned with it. I really think it’s a caring relationship, but I don’t think it’s fake; I like that.
‘I saw it again on the field; I think there is a future there, but they have gone her way far too often. I didn’t count the number of shots in that sequence; there had to be ten or twelve over the course of the game.’
Although Russo felt it was an exaggeration, CBS only showed a total of 54 seconds – less than one percent of the entire time the game was in progress.
Despite Swift’s minimal attendance on the broadcast, Russo, 64, still claimed it was excessive.
“It’s way exaggerated… It’s not so much about the length; it just goes to (her suite),” Russo continued.
‘All they have to do is go there. And if you only go there for 38 seconds, that means you can still go there 25 times – each time is a second and a half. ‘Hey, there she is! Oh, there she is! Kelce caught a ball; there she is. Chiefs drive; there she is. I have her fingers crossed; there she is! I mean, it was just way too much.”
The singer has been praised by others for her effect on the NFL, particularly in attracting more female viewers to games.
But Russo acknowledged Swift’s appeal to a new group of football fans, but suggested it detracted from the sport’s original audience.
CBS only showed a total of 54 seconds, less than one percent of the game
“Listen, I know she’s a huge superstar. The New York Post put her on…the front page, ‘Welcome to Sin City,’ with Taylor Swift on the cover, all among the participants of Super Bowl 58. So you can argue that they are guilty too,” he said.
“But this is CBS, and I understand you have to show a little Taylor Swift, but they want a lot over the top. That’s my opinion. Now, you guys might feel differently, and if you’re a 13 year old girl, or my daughter for that matter, who cares; you can’t get enough of this.
“Thirteen-year-old girls, 14-year-old and 17-year-old girls, and 23-year-old girls like Kiera Russo, they’re not football fans, they’re Taylor Swift fans. This is supposed to be a football crowd, and it was really over the top.”
Swift attended thirteen Chiefs games this season, with Kansas City having a 10-3 record in those games.
The singer and tight end packed on the PDA at the Chef’s Super Bowl afterparty
Swift, Kelce and co celebrated the win until 5:15 a.m. at XS nightclub at Wynn Las Vegas
She attended all four of the Chiefs’ playoff games this season, all of which took place in different cities.
And the singer made a mad dash back from Tokyo, where she performed her Eras Tour last week, to get to Las Vegas in time for Super Bowl Sunday.
She watched her boyfriend win his third Super Bowl ring along with his mother Donna, brother Jason Kelce and her group of A-List friends, including Blake Lively, Ice Spice and Keleigh Teller.
After the Chiefs hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, Swift, Kelce and co partied until 5:15 a.m. at XS nightclub at Wynn Las Vegas.