“During our Sunday morning production meeting,” Stark said, “our producer told our director to be on the lookout for dads and daughters at this game, because we heard so many girls were trying to go to the game just to be in Taylor’s presence.”
All of Stark’s kids, including 20-year-old Mike, a second-year student at UVA, went to the game. Clemmie watched it outside the stadium from the NBC production truck, where one screen only focused on Swift, who was seated near Brittany Mahomes, the wife of the Kansas City quarterback.
“We isolated a camera, which we never do for anyone else, just on Taylor the whole night, just for her reactions and everything,” Stark said. “And Clemmie was watching it. It was funny. She said, ‘Mom, she kept asking Brittany all these questions about football. I don’t think she understands football.’”
From the “Swift cam” to a pre-game segment from “The Voice” host Carson Daly, in which he explained the dynamics of the Chiefs-Jets matchup in Swiftie-friendly language, to several ads featuring both the 12-time Grammy Award winner and her two-time Super Bowl-winning boyfriend, the NBC presentation was unique.
“‘Sunday Night Football,’ we always say that it’s not a narrow-cast, it’s a broadcast,” Stark said. “Because on Sunday night, you get a much bigger audience, a different audience. Hopefully you get some people who don’t know much about football. So we try to story-tell and we try to personalize people and give you incentives to watch and give people to root for and things like that.
“Sunday was so fun because we were really trying to find that balance between Taylor and the football.”
Stark’s initial game report – stemming from her conversation with injured Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers – meshed both narratives.
“A lot of star-power here tonight,” she said on the broadcast. “The last time Taylor Swift and Aaron Rodgers were in the same building together, it was here at MetLife back in May to watch Swift perform at her Eras Tour show. He was a fan, rocking out. Very different circumstances tonight …”
NBC’s Melissa Stark reports on her conversation with Aaron Rodgers.
“His plan is to rejoin the team permanently after their Week 7 bye. And he told me his goal is to play again this season.” pic.twitter.com/Pwu0u8JfY9
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 2, 2023
As for the game itself, Kelce finished with six catches for 60 yards as the Chiefs beat the Jets, 23-20. Had the tight end had a more spectacular showing, Stark said there were plans for a live interview with Kelce in which he would be asked to comment on clips of Swift reacting to his biggest plays.
“And it’s his birthday this week,” she said. “So I was going to say, ‘Any fun plans that the Swifties should know about?’”
Though it didn’t take place, the Kelce interview was at least possible. On this night where she said security was at a “Super Bowl level,” Stark felt she had no shot to speak to Swift.
“If there was a chance,” she said, “I would have no qualms about trying to make that happen.”
Stark returns for a much more traditional broadcast this Sunday night when the San Francisco 49ers host the Dallas Cowboys on NBC.
2023-10-06 19:50:21
#Alumna #Takes #Scenes #Swiftie #NFL #Sunday
