Another Super Bowl has come and gone, with the Kansas City Chiefs’ 25-22 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas on Sunday, February 11.
Super Bowl XLVIII was an intense game, with the Chiefs scoring the winning touchdown in the last few seconds of overtime. However, the game wasn’t the only thing drawing in the viewers. The halftime show, starring R&B superstar Usher and featuring cameos by Alicia Keys, will.i.am, Lil Jon and Ludacris, set record viewership numbers according to the NFL, and the entire broadcast averaged a total of 123.7 million viewers, making it the largest television program since the 1969 moon landing.
But one announcement made during a commercial break may have outdone even Usher’s hit song medley performance. In a Verizon ad Beyonce, joined by Tony Hale, was on a mission to “break the internet.” While working towards this goal the ad references several of Beyonce’s albums, and finally ends with her saying, “OK, drop the music.” Immediately following the ads airing, Beyonce’s two new singles, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” were released, right in the middle of Superbowl LVIII.
When attending a school with no sports, sometimes events like the Super Bowl seem to fly under the radar. However, even though Marymount Manhattan College may not have a football team to call their own, students still have thoughts on the Super Bowl XLVIII and reasons for watching, or not watching this year’s broadcast.
Three students were interviewed: Morgan Levin a junior majoring in film, BB Barnes a junior studying graphic design, and David Hall a freshman, double majoring in film and communications. Out of the three students interviewed, two had watched Superbowl LVIII. These two, Levin and Hall, were inclined to watch the game because of their long standing family traditions to watch the Superbowl.
“It’s (watching the Superbowl) kind of been a family tradition as long as I can remember,” said Hall.
Levin went into watching the game with little expectations and no team preference. However, she felt that the Chiefs and 49ers were an even match that would make for an interesting game. In the end, her interest in sports encouraged her to tune in, and she didn’t regret it.
“Every year in the past I have watched with my family and have always been interested in sports. If I wasn’t going to watch every other game, I should at least watch the Superbowl, right?” said Levin. “The ending of the game was absolutely crazy and actually made me feel sad for the 49ers. Seeing the shots of everyone and then the confetti falling onto Purdy (Brock Purdy, the 49ers QB) as he left the stadium was heartbreaking, but he has a bright future ahead of him.”
As for the halftime show, students revealed that they thought it was decently impressive, as the high viewership may have suggested. However, the Usher performance failed to fulfill all of their dreams. For some students, the cameos, relevancy, and timing of the performance left them disappointed.
“I liked the halftime show and the dancers were absolutely amazing,” said Levin, “I do wish they included Justin Bieber tho, I was really looking forward to a JB and usher reunion. It’s ok though, I still really enjoyed it. “
One of the students interviewed, BB Barnes, chose not to watch the Superbowl this year. Taylor Swift’s inevitable involvement in Super Bowl XLVII contributed to Barne’s decision not to tune into the program. As a major superstar and also the partner to the Cheif’s Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift was sure to get some screen time in Sunday’s game. Prior to the game, some were even going as far as to call Super Bowl LVIII, “Taylor’s Version.”
“I usually watch every year but this year I felt like all the attention was focused on Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift which I found a little annoying,” said Hall.
This concern was shared by Barnes who said Taylor’s presence played into his decision not to watch. However, Taylor ended up receiving far less attention than many had feared. In fact, out of the four hours and 18 minutes of broadcast, Taylor only received about 55 seconds of screen time.
But Taylor was not the only factor playing into Barnes’ decision. Barnes shared some thoughts regarding this year’s broadcast. Typically, Barnes would watch at least the halftime show, but in light of current events, Barnes decided not to.
“This year I really felt like it’s a bit irresponsible participating,” said Barnes, “Given all the humanitarian crises in the world right now, the Super Bowl, the halftime show, all the commercials, the glorified capitalism it just feels like a big distraction.”
