NBC Is Facing Pressure To Replace Carrie Underwood

It only took one game this NFL season for fans to question NBC bringing back Carrie Underwood for its “Sunday Night Football” broadcast.

Underwood has been performing “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” for the past 13 NFL seasons, proving to be a worthy successor to Faith Hill. It was confirmed this August that she’d return for the 2026 season.

“This season, we’ve drawn inspiration from Carrie’s deep, well-documented love of rock music – a perfect fit since our Sunday Night Football anthem was born from pure rock ‘n’ roll: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ ‘I Hate Myself for Loving You.’” said Tripp Dixon, via NBC Sports. “We’ve worked to match these two rock frequencies of past and present as they come together in Carrie’s high-energy performance. The greatest players and teams in the NFL will take it from there.”

During Wednesday night’s season opener between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, NFL content creator Lindsey Ok urged NBC to move on from Underwood.

“It’s time to retire the Carrie Underwood theme song I’m sorry,” she wrote on X.