NBC, Which Shows Taylor Swift 7 Times Per Game, Showed Trump For Just a Few Seconds During Steelers-Jets Game

Donald Trump attended the Steelers-Jets game on Sunday night. But viewers of the matchup on NBC may not have known he was there – unless they happened to catch a few seconds of the broadcast midway through the first quarter.

NBC showed the former president in attendance just once during the entire three-and-a-half-hour broadcast, for a total of four seconds. Play-by-play commentator Mike Tirico quickly acknowledged Trump in the box, and then cameras returned to the field.

In essence, the network checked the box by acknowledging Trump attended the game and decided never to mention it again. 

On the surface, that's fine. Viewers tune into an NFL game to watch football, not see a presidential candidate. However, the same could be said about the games in which Taylor Swift attends. 

And no network fixates more on Swift than NBC.

On average, NBC shows Taylor Swift seven times during an NFL broadcast. Shots of Swift, who is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, can last up to 30 seconds and often include fawning commentary from Tirico and Cris Collinsworth.

It's worth noting that of all the legacy media networks in America, none have dedicated as much airtime to anti-Trump commentary since 2016 as NBC has.

There is a belief within the news industry that NBC's negative coverage of Trump is a means to ease the guilt for once partnering with the former president to air "The Apprentice." 

Competing network executives are known to jab NBC brass at Manhattan cocktail parties for helping "create Trump."

NBC is also, of course, the parent company of MSNBC, the cartoonishly progressive cable news network that employs Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, and Joe Scarborough.

Interestingly, based on demographics, NFL viewers are likely more interested in Trump than Taylor Swift. While Trump is a presidential candidate, Swift is just as polarizing.

In fact, a New York Times-Siena survey last month found that Swift is less liked than Trump. Seriously, Swift has a favorability rating of just 42%, while Trump has a score of 47%.

Despite what NBC is convinced, Swift's childless cat lady endorsement of Kamala Harris didn't make her a "slay queen." The endorsement made her less popular.

Republicans buy concert tickets, too.

Further, Trump was quite a hit with Steelers fans on Sunday. NBC opted not to show the following interaction:

Next week, NBC hosts the Cowboys-49ers matchup in San Francisco.

Kamala was San Francisco's 27th district attorney. Still, Harris was a notoriously unpopular DA – even in liberal San Francisco. Local Republicans and Democrats resented her.

So, to avoid the risk of being booed out of the stadium, we don't anticipate her showing up next weekend. 

Or to any NFL game.