Al Michaels on Swift-Kelce effect on the NFL: 'We love it'

It must be easier for Michaels to say that he's enjoying it now that the "Traylor" eclipse has passed Prime Video, especially after he said that the broadcast team would try to limit the discussion about Swift herself compared to what the NFL's linear TV partners have done.

There's no question that the Swifties have been a blessing to the NFL, its broadcast partners and sponsors — all who have tried to attach themselves in one way or another through prying interviews, eyebrow-raising social media posts and more. Yet how much of an effect they have had on NFL's viewership is more negligible than you're led to believe.

Back on Oct. 3, Sportico's Anthony Crupi took a deep dive into the ratings data from the Week 2 showdown between the Chiefs and New York Jets on NBC's "Sunday Night Football." Noting that there were certainly more female viewers for this game than the "SNF" tilt in the same window a year ago, Crupi said that the Swifties didn't completely change the audience makeup.

"Given NBC’s big linear lift—the TV audience for the Chiefs-Jets game was up 19% year-over-year, good for a gain of 3.98 million total viewers—it stands to reason that Nielsen would record a concomitant boost in the number of women who tuned in. Indeed, such was the case, as NBC reached 1.9 million more women than they did in the year-ago SNF window. But when those additional female impressions are weighed against the overall gains in total viewership, the number of [presumably] Swift-generated lookers-on works out to be a bit lower—around 1.45 million.

"In terms of overall audience composition, Sunday night’s audience was only slightly more female-skewing (38%) than any other typical SNF gathering, as the primetime games generally serve up a 36-64 gender split."

However, for Prime Video, "Traylor" could potentially have a bit more impact than it has for traditional broadcasters. We'll find out if the pop icon led to more Amazon Prime sign-ups (maybe) in due time, but there's no doubt that the NFL is the gift that keeps on giving to its partners.