While MAGA devotees were watching Kid Rock lip-sync at an off-brand halftime show, the rest of America was dancing to Bad Bunny.
The Puerto Rican star’s Super Bowl halftime show averaged 128.2 million viewers just between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, according to Nielsen—a far, far cry from Turning Point USA’s 6.1 million concurrent viewers on YouTube for its pre-taped “All-American Halftime Show” around the same period.
Nielsen also reported that an estimated 124.9 million viewers tuned into the Super Bowl over the weekend, making it the second-most-watched edition behind the 2025 broadcast headlined by Kendrick Lamar. A staggering 137.8 million Americans watched the second quarter of the Seattle Seahawks-New England Patriots matchup, which is now the highest peak viewership in U.S. history.
Turning Point USA, the conservative youth organization founded by assassinated activist Charlie Kirk, billed its MAGAfied halftime show as “a unique, patriotic event proudly celebrating American culture, freedom, and faith.”
The group first announced that it would stage its Super Bowl alternative in October, after the NFL revealed that Bad Bunny, a Spanish-speaking reggaeton hitmaker, would become the first solo Latin artist to headline the highly anticipated halftime show.
“The All-American Halftime Show is an opportunity for all Americans to enjoy a halftime show with no agenda other than to celebrate faith, family, and freedom,” Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet said earlier this month.
In response to conservative uproar over his selection, Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, quipped in his Saturday Night Live! monologue that viewers had “four months to learn” Spanish. He walked the joke back last week, saying, “They don’t even have to learn Spanish. They [can] learn to dance.”
As Americans gathered in groups to watch the Super Bowl, Turning Point USA announced that its halftime show hit a snag before it even went live.
“UPDATE: Due to licensing restrictions, we are unable to stream The All-American Halftime Show on X,” TPUSA said on X just two hours before the broadcast.
The issues didn’t stop there. Viewers tuned in to see Kid Rock were put off by his apparent lip-syncing in his first performance.
“Was Kid Rock doing a really bad job of lip syncing or is my audio out of sync?” one X user wrote just after Kid Rock jumped up onstage in a fur vest, jean shorts, and fedora hat to perform his 1999 song “Bawitdaba.”
The half-hour show included performances from country music stars Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett, as well as a classical duo that performed a string interlude. Sources later told Variety that the show was pre-taped in Atlanta.
Kid Rock denied lip-syncing in a video posted to X on Tuesday, claiming “My halftime performance was pre recorded but performed live. No lipsycing like the haters and fake news are trying to report. When they synced the cameras to my performance on Bawitdaba, it did not line up...”
In an X post made after the show, Kirk’s widow Erika said he “would have loved” the broadcast dedicated to him.
“Thank you to the millions that tuned in,” she wrote, adding, “It’s okay to love Jesus and your country. Ultimately, this is what it’s all about, making Heaven crowded.”
