Newsmax trashed the Super Bowl halftime show starring Bad Bunny and hyped the alternative right-wing halftime show featuring Kid Rock. The hype continued in a post-game Feb. 9 article by Nicole Weatherholtz:
Turning Point USA’s All-American Halftime Show drew more than 5.7 million viewers on Sunday as a patriotic alternative to the NFL’s controversial Super Bowl LX halftime act, according to Total Pro Sports.
The conservative youth organization put the hour-long rival event together after the NFL’s decision to feature Bad Bunny — a Puerto Rican rapper singing in Spanish — as the official halftime headliner sparked backlash on the right.
Some social media users, recognizing the challenge of measuring streaming viewership, speculated that the alternative Super Bowl halftime programming may have drawn close to 30 million views across platforms.
According to Arizona state Sen. Jake Hoffman on X, “The NFL’s stranglehold on culture is dead 30 MILLION+ eyeballs watched @TPUSA’s All-American halftime show.”
Another X user reposted Hoffman, saying, “There were over 10M screens streaming this. Meaning there were over 30M views leaving the Super Bowl to watch it.”
[…]Critics noted the effort underscored cultural divisions over major entertainment choices, with supporters praising TPUSA’s show and detractors dismissing it as niche.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday in a Truth Social post that Bad Bunny’s halftime show was “absolutely terrible.”
“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” Trump wrote. “It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence.
“Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World,” the president said.
Jim Mishler wrote in an article the same day:
Entertainer Bad Bunny cleared some of his social media presence after performing in the halftime show of Sunday’s Super Bowl LX.
The Hill reported that following the appearance, the Puerto Rican rapper and singer deleted all Instagram posts, removed his profile photo, and unfollowed all users on the platform.
His account has more than 52 million followers. He also unfollowed accounts on X and removed his profile photo from his @sanbenito account, where he has about 5 million followers.
No explanation was given for the changes.
The performer, whose birth name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, appeared before a crowd of more than 70,000 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, with millions watching worldwide.
By contrast, Weatherholtz failed to note that Kid Rock’s birth name is Robert Ritchie.
Meanwhile, here in reality, the TPUSA halftime show drew about 6.1 million concurrent viewers, while Bad Bunny drew more than 128 million viewers. Mishler tried to spin that news that number in a Feb. 11 article:
A report citing Nielsen quarter-hour data said Super Bowl viewership declined heading into the halftime show.
A Front Office Sports reporter noted in a post on X that, “Based on my understanding of the data, Bad Bunny lost more [percentage] of the Super Bowl viewership from the end of the second quarter than has ever happened before.”
The report said 135.9 million people watched the NBC and Telemundo broadcasts from 8 p.m. to 8:14 p.m. ET, then viewership fell to 128.2 million from 8:15 p.m. to 8:29 p.m.
Tamar Alexia Fleishman put her own spin on the TPUSA show in a Feb. 10 column:
This year, the NFL took a sledgehammer to our annual rallying point behind football, music and snacks. They selected Bad Bunny, a cross-dressing, “gender fluid” Puerto Rican singer whose songs in Spanish decry America and President Trump.
Reportedly, NBC had to have sub-titles in English for the American audience.
Joining him was the perpetual (and past its prime) Never-Trumper band Green Day.
Seriously.
[…]Conservative organization TurningPoint USA (TPUSA) in its first completely new project since the assassination of founder Charlie Kirk, decided to put on its own half-time show – and history will not consider it an also-ran.
For patriots not wanting to be castigated by celebrities and parents who don’t want their kids being exposed to libertines, the announcement was a welcome one.
Like all the big events in history, TPUSA arranged for the show to be broadcast across several channels and platforms, distinguishing itself by the younger generations’ excellence in outreach.
Presented as the “All-American Halftime Show,” the lineup included Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett.
[…]This wirter’s mom is from Detroit: I look at Kid Rock, introduced to the audience by his real name, Robert Ritchie, as a hometown hero made good.
Like Mick Jagger, he looks and performs like someone 30 years younger than he is.
Most people are unaware of the tremendous good that he’s done for even highbrow arts, donating $250,000 to the Detroit Historical Museum (a world-class venue) for a music lab and raised $1 million for the renowned Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
For the show, he shifted from his rocking classics to a thoughtful ballad that touched on family, religion and life.
A tribute to Charlie Kirk finished the show, giving depth and meaning to the halftime show that showed the real America.
Fleishman didn’t explain why Green Day is “past its prime” and Kid Rock, who hasn’t had a hit in a good couple decades, is not.