US Politics
Turning Point to bring back rival Super Bowl halftime show next year — despite drawing a fraction of Bad Bunny’s viewers
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Turning Point USA, the conservative nonprofit founded by Charlie Kirk, said it would continue offering an ideologically aligned alternative to the Super Bowl halftime show next year, citing Sunday’s success.
In protest of Bad Bunny’s halftime performance, Turning Point organized its own “All-American” concert featuring known conservative musicians such as Kid Rock. It aired simultaneously with the NFL’s halftime show for people who were angry about the Puerto Rican musician performing in Spanish.
Hours after it aired, Andrew Kolvet, the spokesperson for Turning Point, told Fox News that the alternative halftime show was so successful, “We are going to commit to doing this again, next year.”
Kolvet said, as of Sunday evening, the event had “20 million viewers” across social media platforms alone and hypothesized the number could reach as many as 50 million within the day.
Turning Point’s concert had roughly 20 million views on YouTube as of Monday afternoon – but The Athletic said it had around 6.1 million during its stream.
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While exact numbers for the Super Bowl’s halftime show are not available yet, it’s expected to be more than 100 million. The last four Super Bowls garnered a viewership of more than 100 million, according to Nielsen Holdings – the world’s leading audience metric company.
Official viewership numbers are expected to be publicly available Tuesday afternoon via NBC.
But the NFL’s video of Bad Bunny’s performance had more than 26 million views via YouTube as of Monday afternoon.
Last year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched game in history, with more than 127 million views. This year’s viewership could surpass that of the 2025 Super Bowl, given Bad Bunny is the most-streamed artist globally.
However, some conservatives, including President Donald Trump, lashed out at the NFL for choosing Bad Bunny as the halftime performance because he performs in Spanish – the second most commonly spoken language in the U.S.
Trump’s administration has embarked on a mass immigration enforcement campaign to deport undocumented immigrants. Many of those targeted are from Central or Latin American countries.
The decision to have Bad Bunny perform at the halftime show, by the NFL and Roc Nation, has been interpreted as a political move to stand with immigrants during a chaotic and tense time. However, it’s more likely that Bad Bunny was chosen because he is the most popular musician internationally.
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Turning Point’s online viewership numbers are expected to rise in the coming days as more people watch the stream on YouTube or other platforms. Kolvet expressed excitement about planning next year’s event, claiming it was “for the country.”
“If you give us a year to plan this thing. I’m really excited to see what we can pull off. But we gotta do it for the country,” Kolvet said.
Kolvet insisted that Turning Point’s “All-America” alternative halftime show was created to promote Kirk’s “ideals” about what the Super Bowl halftime show is about.
“[Kirk] wanted it to lift up the best ideals of our country as opposed to pulling us down,” he said.
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show promoted unity in the Americas with phrases such as “Together, we are America” and “The only thing that’s more powerful than hate is love” displayed during his performance.