Title: Your Super Bowl Plans.

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Tiffany Hansen: It's The Brian Lehrer Show. I'm Tiffany Hansen in for Brian today. Coming up on Sunday, it's the Super Bowl. Are you excited to watch the game? Are you excited about the ads, the halftime show? Do you have counter-programming plans in place for your Sunday evening? Listeners, we would love to hear from you about your Sunday plans. 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. Now, truth be told, I don't know a heck of a lot about football, but I am joined by someone who does. Kavitha Davidson is the host of a podcast called Sportly. She's here to help me out, potentially you out as well. Welcome back to the show, Kavitha.

Kavitha Davidson: Thank you for having me.

Tiffany Hansen: All right. I do know this much. We have Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles. Where's this game being played?

Kavitha Davidson: This game is going to be in New Orleans at the Superdome, which is obviously an interesting sight given the terror attack that happened on New Year's Day. It's also the 20th anniversary this year of Hurricane Katrina. The Superdome was obviously highly visible and a really important part of the efforts there. I think that the city of New Orleans is very excited for this. This should be a great game and a great event for the town.

Tiffany Hansen: The decision was made to hold it in New Orleans, I would assume, before that terror attack there. These decisions are made a long time in advance, right?

Kavitha Davidson: Yes. Actually, we know the cities that will be hosting the next four Super Bowls. The NFL makes these decisions quite a few years in advance. There are a number of factors that go into that. The Superdome has hosted quite a few Super Bowls in the past. Weather is a huge issue. We don't get a lot of cold weather Super Bowl host cities, but if a team has recently built a new stadium, they tend to be rewarded by being awarded the Super Bowl as well. Yes, we do know far in advance where the Super Bowl will be held.

Tiffany Hansen: This could be potentially a big deal for Kansas City, who if they win, this would be their third Super Bowl title. Is that right?

Kavitha Davidson: It would be their third straight. They won the last two.

Tiffany Hansen: It would be their third straight?

Kavitha Davidson: Yes.

Tiffany Hansen: That's the big deal part, is that it's in a row.

Kavitha Davidson: It's in a row. It's called a three-peat. We've actually never had a three-peat in the history of the Super Bowl era in the NFL. This would be unprecedented. They've won five of the last. They've been to five of the last six. They're a dynasty that's already been built. That's really what everybody is looking toward right now.

Tiffany Hansen: Well, even if you know as little about sports as I do, it's possible that you've heard of someone named Travis Kelce, who plays for the Chiefs. I'm understanding he's a tight end. I have no idea what that means. He does have a very famous girlfriend also, Taylor Swift. That relationship has done a lot for the Chiefs, right?

Kavitha Davidson: Yes. There's obviously an outsized amount of media presence whenever Taylor Swift is anywhere, let alone an NFL stadium to root on her boyfriend, Travis Kelce. In the last few years, there's been an influx of younger women fans who are fans of Taylor Swift and are now rooting for and watching the Chiefs.

Tiffany Hansen: Swifties. You mean Swifties?

Kavitha Davidson: Absolutely Swifties. I do have to point out, though, that the NFL has always boasted nearly 50% women fandom. I think a lot has been made about the Swift bump, which is a real thing, but this is in keeping with how the NFL has garnered women fans in the past.

Tiffany Hansen: All right. We have a caller here with some counter-programming idea for us. It's Dan. Welcome to the conversation, Dan.

Dan: Hi. This Sunday, I'll be doing the same thing that I did last year, which is working as a Lyft driver in New Jersey before, during, and after the game. Last year, they were offering around $5 as a bonus per ride, and it was really busy, really profitable. I don't really care too much about Super Bowl. For me, it's just a pretty good payday.

Tiffany Hansen: Well, Kavitha, there are a lot of people who don't really care about the Super Bowl. Driving Lyft is one way to get around it. Some people, who don't necessarily like the football, will tune in for other reasons. We have a text here that says, "If I watch any of the game, it's only to watch and cheer on the commercials." [laughs] There's, first of all, a lot of money put into those commercials. There's also a lot of creativity.

Kavitha Davidson: Yes. Obviously, Super Bowl ads are usually a major highlight of the spectacle that is the Super Bowl every year. We always see the ratings for the Super Bowl are wild. I think 114 million people tuned in last year. At some point, 200 million people were watching probably for the ads and the halftime show. This has really been part of the NFL's concerted effort in the last few decades to make the game about more than just the game. They've been really successful in doing that.

Tiffany Hansen: One of the things people tune in for is also the halftime show. Who is it this year?

Kavitha Davidson: Kendrick Lamar doing his victory lap after sweeping the Grammys last Sunday.

Tiffany Hansen: I'm assuming it's not just Kendrick Lamar. I've not noticed this trend lately, where the halftime shows are a mix of famous musicians, famous singers.

Kavitha Davidson: Yes. You always have one headliner. It is Kendrick. He will also be bringing on Sza. Often, the headliners will just bring on their very famous friends to do some features or do some cameos. It'll be exciting to see what he has in store for us. Kendrick is certainly enough himself.

Tiffany Hansen: Forgive my ignorance. Has Beyoncé done a halftime show?

Kavitha Davidson: Beyoncé has done two. Beyoncé did-- I'm going to forget the year, but the year that she was doing her Formation tour. I think that was Super Bowl 50 in 2016 with Chris Martin from Coldplay and Bruno Mars.

Tiffany Hansen: Do you have a favorite halftime show? Right answers only. [laughs]

Kavitha Davidson: I do. 2007, Prince.

Tiffany Hansen: Oh, thank you. That is the right answer.

Kavitha Davidson: The late great Prince, he did the halftime show. It was remarkable. Prince didn't do corporate things like this very often, so it was very special.

Tiffany Hansen: It started raining.

Kavitha Davidson: It started raining during Purple Rain. Come on.

Tiffany Hansen: Come on. [laughs] There are a lot of reasons, I suppose, that folks gather together for the Super Bowl. We've mentioned a couple of them. The ads, the music. There's also this sort of like, it's winter. There's a nice opportunity here for people to get together.

Kavitha Davidson: Yes. I think that there are a lot of people who just use this as an excuse to gather and throw a party and eat terrible food, and that's really okay. The NFL is still getting their dollars from it. I think that betting is also a huge thing that is continuing to drive interest in the Super Bowl.

Tiffany Hansen: Well, let's bring Susan in Manhattan into the conversation. Hi, Susan.

Susan: Hi. Can you hear me?

Tiffany Hansen: I can.

Susan: Great. I was just calling to say that typically, I'm invited to a Super Bowl for poets party hosted by some friends of mine. They cook amazing food and we all bring poetry to recite.

Tiffany Hansen: Love that.

Susan: That has nothing to do with football.

Tiffany Hansen: Is the game on at all? Is it really then just a poetry--

Susan: Yes, the game is on and off.

Tiffany Hansen: It's not just a poetry party?

Susan: Yes, the game is on in the back away from the poet.

Tiffany Hansen: Got it. All right. Noted. All right, Kavitha, there's something I haven't heard before in terms of counter-programming. We got a nice text here. "I'll be looking for a good old-time movie on Turner Classic Movies for Super Bowl night." One last question, I think, here before we wrap it up. Just in terms of news-y things here, the NFL announced it's not going to do the End Racism slogan that it had in the end zones. Just quickly catch us up on that if you can.

Kavitha Davidson: The NFL started having the message End Racism painted in the end zones from 2021 and they announced that they're going to get rid of that messaging and replace it with Choose Love. The explanation that they're giving is that in light of some of the recent events, the crashes in DC, the LA wildfires, and obviously, the terror attack in New Orleans, that they wanted to expand the message beyond ending racism. Now, there are a lot of people who don't believe that that is the reason. They think that this is in direct response to President Trump's call to end DEI initiatives. To that end, I will say that Roger Goodell did directly state that the NFL has no plans in ending their DEI initiatives in their hiring practices.

Tiffany Hansen: We have been talking about the Super Bowl with Kavitha Davidson. She is the host of the podcast Sportly. We are, of course, talking about that big sporting event happening on Sunday, the Super Bowl. Kavitha, thanks so much for your time today, and enjoy the game.

Kavitha Davidson: Thanks.

Tiffany Hansen: You've been listening to The Brian Lehrer Show. I am Tiffany Hansen filling in for Brian Today. Do hope you have a great weekend, and join us back here on Monday at 10:00.

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