For the first time in Super Bowl history, the halftime show received more press coverage than the game itself.
As you’ve likely heard by now, Bad Bunny headlined the actual halftime show, and he crushed it.
But last year, the initial announcement of his gig ignited a firestorm of senseless outrage.
In response to the baffling uproar, Erika Kirk and Turning Point USA announced their own halftime show, which aired online opposite Bad Bunny’s.
Many MAGAsphere social media users said they were planning to tune into the Turning Point show, which was be headlined by Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett.
“It’s true, Turning Point USA is thrilled to announce The All-American Halftime Show,” the organization said in an October 2025 X statement, noting the concert will celebrate “faith, family, and freedom.”
The response was so strong that Erika vowed that her show would draw a “larger audience” than Bad Bunny’s performance.
But was there ever any actual chance of that?
Short answer: no. Long answer: absolutely freakin’ not.
For starters, the folks at Turning Point didn’t do a great job of getting the word out, announcing their lineup less than one week before the big game.
On top of that, the Super Bowl is the biggest television broadcast of the year by a significant margin.
Basically nothing can compete with it.
Erika and company would’ve needed tens of millions of people to interrupt their Super Bowl parties in order to change channels or log in to YouTube.
In short, the new Turning Point CEO over-promised — by a lot.
“For us to be able to provide an alternative that’s pro-America, that’s just pro everything, that that’s not the opposite of what they’re putting out there, I don’t want to go into details and bash that, because there’s apparently an audience that wants that,” Kirk said during a recent appearance on Fox News’ The Story with Martha MacCallum (via Newsweek), adding:
“But there’s a larger audience that wants ours. And so we are going to make it very amazing. I’m so excited.”
She’s right that there was a weird degree of outrage surrounding the Bad Bunny announcement — but she’s likely greatly overestimated the extent to which people are willing to change the channel in the middle of the Super Bowl.
“What I’m feeling goes beyond myself,” Bad Bunny posted on Instagram last year, announcing his performance.
“It’s for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown … this is for my people, my culture and our history. Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.”
The artist — whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — poked fun at the controversy surrounding his selection when he hosted Saturday Night Live back in October.
“I’m very excited to be doing the Super Bowl, and I know people all around the world who love my music are also happy,” Benito said in Spanish during his monologue.
“If you didn’t understand now what I just said, you have four months to learn!”
But if you haven’t been taking your Spanish lessons, fear not! You don’t need to be multilingual to enjoy a Bad Bunny performance!