Taylor Swift Helps Chiefs Game Draw A Ton Of Female Viewers, Particularly Girls Age 12-17

Networks typically struggle to maintain peak ratings during NFL matchups that end in blowouts.

That is particularly true when the leading team benches their star quarterback early in the third quarter, as the Chiefs did with Patrick Mahomes on Sunday.

Yet Fox Sports says 24.3 million viewers watched the Chiefs' 41-10 blowout against the Chicago Bears, the most-watched telecast of the week on any network.

The NFL can thank Taylor Swift, who was in attendance to cheer on maybe boyfriend Travis Kelce.

Specifically, the game ranked first among females, and among all key female demographics.

And here's the key:

Nearly every demographic dipped for the telecast compared to a week ago. Except for females ages 12-17, which saw an 8.1% uptick.

Fox Sports admits the game "Swiftly scored" the win:

At that rate, the NFL ought to consider paying for Swift to attend the Chiefs game this Sunday night in New York.

What's impressive is that Nielsen measures television ratings by the average viewership per minute of a broadcast. Twelve-year-old girls didn't just tune in for a few minutes. To register the uptick they did means they watched most of the three-and-a-half-hour broadcast.

No, girls, not all QBs look like Justin Fields. Most of them can throw a football.

Though the cut-ins to Swift's suite were perpetual, she appeared on the screen for less than two minutes in total.

Apparently, that was enough to cost Swifties their entire Sunday afternoon.

It was also enough to make Kelce's jersey the hottest commodity in the NFL. A Fanatics spokesperson says his jersey sales increased nearly 400 percent on Sunday.

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - SEPTEMBER 24: Taylor Swift is seen during a game between the Chicago Bears and the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on September 24, 2023 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jason Hanna/Getty Images)

Who else could have such an impact on a single football game? No one.

As we argued Monday, Taylor Swift is the most famous celebrity in the United States.

She has firmly surpassed Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in terms of Q-rating, the percentage of the public that is familiar with a particular star.

If you disagree with that assessment, chime in here.

You expect me to end this story with some cheesy, cringe allusion to one of Swift's songs. But I won't do it.