Fred Gaudelli was the lead producer of the Super Bowl telecast on seven different occasions. If you like Roman numerals, Gaudelli produced Super Bowls XXXVII, XL, XLIII, XLVI, XLIX, LII, and LVI. He’s been in the production truck of some of the most exciting NFL title games in history, including Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, which saw New England Patriots rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler intercept Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson at the line try with 20 seconds left to seal New England’s 28-24 comeback win over Seattle. That game averaged 114.4 million viewers, ranking as the most-watched Super Bowl in American television history before last year’s Super Bowl took the title.
During his 33 seasons as the lead producer of an NFL primetime game show, which included stops on ABC, ESPN, NBC and Amazon Prime Video, Gaudelli produced countless NFL games with famous people in the stands. How would you feel about the prospect of Taylor Swift attending Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas on Feb. 11 if he were the one producing the game?
“I would consider it a gift from the gods,” Gaudelli said.
Gaudelli, because he lives on Planet Earth, knows that Swift is entering popular culture and that means the potential for more eyes on the product. (If you hate Swift, this song will be a cruel summer for you, and we better dance outside now.)
The challenge for the CBS Sports production team for Super Bowl LVIII, should Swift arrive at the game to watch boyfriend Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers, is to figure out how often it incorporates images of the singer into the broadcast.
The good news for the crew — led by producer Jim Rikhoff, director Mike Arnold and replay producer Ryan Galvin — is that they’ve had plenty of meetings with the Chiefs this year, including the divisional round game in Buffalo and the of the AFC Championship Game in Baltimore, both of which Swift participated in. It would be editorial abandon to not show Swift during the game, but at the same time, how much do you show her?
Then there’s a new question: How much does the Super Bowl, a game that includes millions of people watching football that season for the first time, impact your decisions to broadcast it?
“We go to the last Super Bowl I did,” Gaudelli said of the Los Angeles Rams’ win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Feb. 13, 2022. “We had (Rams quarterback) Matthew Stafford, his wife and his kids. We had (Bengals quarterback) Joe Burrow’s parents and girlfriend. We had (Rams receiver) Cooper Kupp’s wife. We had (Rams offensive lineman) Andrew Whitworth’s wife and kids. We had (Bengals receiver) Ja’Marr Chase’s mom and dad. You set up these shots because they’re part of the story of the game and because there are five times more people (watching) than you would see for a normal match. From the beginning you’re already thinking about who’s in the game, and in Los Angeles we had celebrities like LeBron James and Jay-Z. (Director) Drew Esocoff was cutting those shots during the game. Then, when Stafford threw a touchdown pass, there’s a shot of Stafford’s wife. Is Burrow on the ground writing in pain? You see his mother, father and girlfriend with extremely worried expressions.
“Now you have Taylor Swift, who is also someone who has a direct connection to the game because she is the significant other of one of the stars of a team. Maybe you won’t show her for every Kelce sequence, but she will be part of the sequences when she does a comedy.
The airtime Swift has gotten so far during NFL games is much less than some think. New York Times writer Benjamin Hoffman wrote a great piece this week which chronicled “the dissonance between how many times Swift has been shown versus how many times people seem to think she’s been shown.” She reported that Swift was on screen for less than 32 seconds in most games, with a high of 1 minute, 16 seconds for Peacock’s coverage of the Chiefs against the Miami Dolphins on Jan. 13.
“You can’t help but put it in the air,” said Tracy Wolfson, who will be on the Chiefs’ sideline for the Super Bowl. “I can’t tell you how many dads have come to me and said, ‘My daughter watches soccer now because of Taylor Swift.’ I mean, why wouldn’t you take advantage of it or capitalize on it? “It’s great for the NFL and it’s great for the ratings.”
The Fox broadcast of the Chiefs’ game against the Chicago Bears on September 11, 2019. 24 set the template for Swift coverage because the network had to figure everything out on the fly. Lead producer Richie Zyontz said his crew had no official information from the NFL or the Chiefs about Swift’s presence. (This changed in the following weeks; Rikhoff knew Swift would be there the night before the Chiefs-Bills game.) They had to figure out which camera operators to use for the shots and how many to use.
“We were in uncharted waters being the first to deal with the situation,” Zyontz said this week, reflecting on that game. “Moderation immediately came to mind. There have been too many knee-jerk reactions as the season has progressed, yet those were the shots that were talked about and written about on Monday. For the Super Bowl there will be millions of new viewers thanks to her. Hopefully common sense will prevail. But for those who complain, come on, it’s a few seconds at a time, a few times a game. Is this really shameful?”

“You can’t help but put her on the air,” Tracy Wolfson, who will be working the Chiefs’ sidelines at the Super Bowl for the CBS broadcast, says of Taylor Swift. (Jason Hanna/Getty Images)
The Super Bowl will be very different. If Swift is at the game, the Chiefs and the NFL will know which suite Swift will sit in at the stadium. So there will be no problem for CBS television production in finding her. CBS will submit a request to interview the singer. (If there’s a bet on Swift being interviewed on camera, I’d bet not.) Gaudelli said a production’s best chance would be to go through the Chiefs who would relay the request to her via Kelce. You would also ask her if she wanted to do anything off camera.
“We didn’t make this request during the season because we didn’t think it got to that level at the time,” said Gaudelli, who is now an executive producer of NBC’s NFL coverage. “But yeah, I think you put him in for the Super Bowl. “You would try to get her into the pre-game show.”
Expect some guaranteed images post-match. If the Chiefs win, there will definitely be a CBS cameraman following Kelce.
“As a producer and director, he’s one of the biggest guys you want to see at the end of the game because, if they win, it’s going to be a big part of his dynasty,” Gaudelli said. “So where he is, she will be too. You really don’t have to hunt too far. “You’ll be looking for number 87.”
One person who is watching all this with utter amusement is Ian Eagle, the CBS broadcaster who was the first national NFL broadcaster to acknowledge the Swift-Kelce connection. On a touchdown call by Kelce during Kansas City’s 17-9 win over Jacksonville on Sept. 11, 2019. 17, Eagle brazenly threw in a Line “Kelce finds a blank spot for scoring.”referencing the title of a Swift song.
“Kelce finds a blank space for the score.”
Ian Eagle throws a reference into this Travis Kelce touchdown call 👀
🎥 @NFLpic.twitter.com/pQNiqZdh88
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) September 17, 2023
“By September, some stories had surfaced linking Travis to Taylor, but by then the coverage was no better,” Eagle said. “When Kelce scored a touchdown in Jacksonville, I added, ‘Find a blank for the score’ as a joke. I thought it was a cute throwaway line, not imagining for a moment that it would explode. I quickly learned of Swift’s power, and in all these months interest has grown exponentially in this Chiefs run. The NFL was already huge. But the relationship has somehow created even more interest in the league. “I’m just happy for those two crazy kids.”

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(Top photo of Taylor Swift and her boyfriend: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)