The morning after the Seahawks became Super Bowl champions, people spent Monday trying to figure out who had won the other widely talked about competition of the night: Dueling halftime performances between Bad Bunny and conservative darling Kid Rock. Nielsen figures won't be released until Tuesday on how many people tuned in to watch Bad Bunny, a U.S. citizen born in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico and the NFL's superstar performer. Most years the show attracts more than 100 million viewers. The conservative organization Turning Point USA arranged the competing performance, and spokesperson Andrew Kolvet told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on Sunday evening that ''at one point'' roughly 10 million people were watching the Kid Rock show live across all social media platforms. The organization didn't release exact figures when asked on Monday morning, though at one point roughly 5 million people were watching the show live on YouTube.
The race to capture national attention during the most widely watched event in the U.S. has been cast as a competition to define the country given that Turning Point organized its performance with President Donald Trump's blessing to protest the NFL picking the star from Puerto Rico as its headliner.
The performances come at a polarizing time in the U.S., with stark lines drawn between proponents of Trump's immigration policies and the people opposing large-scale immigration crack downs in American cities. Within weeks of the Super Bowl, two white Americans citizens were killed by federal agents in Minneapolis, a city that was last in the global spotlight during protests over the murder of George Floyd.
Bad Bunny has been a vocal and outspoken opponent of ICE, although he made no mention of the agency during his performance. Kid Rock is one of the president's highest profile celebrity allies.
Turning Point calls performance a ‘massive success'
The ''All American Halftime Show'' headlined by Kid Rock, included a video and photo tribute to the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot last year on a Utah college campus.
The program lasted roughly 30 minutes and also featured country musicians Brantley Gilbert, Gabby Barrett and Lee Brice. Several performers declared that the alternative show represented ''the real America,'' while Kolvet told Fox News that the viewership amounted to a ''massive'' success.
''People are paying attention,'' he said.
