Bad Bunny, Poor Super Bowl Ratings Could Have Lingering Effect on NFL's Popularity

Before the Super Bowl, comedian Adam Carolla compared the NFL’s decision to book Bad Bunny for the halftime show to Bud Light partnering with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in 2023.

"You know, Bud Light thought they had their fans and they weren’t going anywhere, and Cracker Barrel thought they had their fans and they weren’t going anywhere," Carolla said. "I think it’s happened a time or two where companies and entities figured they had their fans locked in, let’s go with other fans."

For context, Bud Light sparked significant backlash from beer drinkers by partnering with Mulvaney to celebrate his "365 days of girlhood." Consequently, the company lost an estimated $27 billion in market value and lost its position as the world’s top-selling beer brand for the first time in two decades.

While no one expects the NFL to face that level of fallout, Bad Bunny lost the most viewership from the second quarter to the halftime performance in Super Bowl history on Sunday. 

Specifically, halftime viewership fell 7 percent from the game’s peak audience of 137.9 million in the second quarter. Most years, the audience grows during halftime.

It is unclear how much Turning Point USA’s alternative halftime show featuring Kid Rock affected Super Bowl viewership. However, the stream drew nearly six million concurrent viewers across social media platforms, suggesting the impact was not insignificant.

The question is what type of lasting effect the negativity surrounding the Super Bowl will have on the NFL in the long term. Keep in mind, the official 2.2 percent decline from last year's game is misleading. 

We explained on Tuesday:

Before the season began, Nielsen introduced an updated measurement system called Big Data + Panel, which combines digital device data with its traditional meter panel. The change produced noticeable increases in reported average viewership, particularly for live sports. Conservatively, the new methodology is estimated to have boosted live sports audiences by 5 to 8 percent.

Translation: the Super Bowl was down much more than the NFL and NBC claim. Likewise, the regular season was not actually up 10% year over year.

Assuming Nielsen won't tinker with its method again by the start of next season, the league could see the consequences of ignoring the interests of half the country. 

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 08: Bad Bunny performs onstage during the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show at Levi's Stadium on February 08, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

Despite its popularity, the NFL is not bulletproof from cultural blowback. In 2016 and 2017, viewership fell by double digits amid the national anthem protests led by Colin Kaepernick and other players.

The league recovered, but it took over 10 years to regain its favorability rating among Republican viewers.

Further, it's not as if the NFL is providing a riveting product to offset its political blunders. For two straight seasons, the Super Bowl has been nearly unwatchable. Neither game was competitive or all that entertaining. 

In fact, the past two Super Bowls have underscored many of the league's top on-field concerns, particularly the poor offensive line and quarterback play.

There was a time when the end of the Super Bowl marked the start of a long, empty offseason. This year, the reaction feels different. No one is expressing sadness that there won't be another professional football game on television until after Labor Day.

As Carolla argued, brands like the NFL and Bud Light should focus less on trying to attract fans who don't consume their products and more on satisfying the consumers who do.