Puppies, not politics, won Super Bowl Sunday

Americans expressed their preference for alternatives to the Super Bowl this year, and Kid Rock wasn’t it. 

The Puppy Bowl brought in 15.3 million viewers last Sunday according to official Neilsen numbers released Thursday, the pup-centered event’s biggest audience since 2018. The Super Bowl side event featuring romping baby dogs, now in its 22nd year, offers a lighthearted alternative for anyone alienated by the yearly American football ritual. 

In the Puppy Bowl, two teams of puppies (Team Ruff and Team Fluff) wrestle, romp and nap their way down a miniature football field featuring live play-by-play commentary, referees, and even a “Lombarky” trophy. The event raises money for animal shelters and also adopts out most of its own star pups, whether they emerge victorious or not. 

Last year, 12.8 million viewers tuned in to the Puppy Bowl, which airs on Animal Planet, Discovery, TBS, truTV, and HBO Max. The fluffy Super Bowl alternative drew in 6 million viewers in its first year and has been averaging around 12 million viewers in the last handful of years.

“This year’s Puppy Bowl delivered its strongest performance in nearly a decade, and its success across linear and streaming highlights our unique ability to unite audiences around content that feels good and does good,” Discovery Channel Head of Content Joseph Boyle said in a press release. “We’re grateful to bring viewers so much joy and are deeply proud of the purpose at the heart of this event.” 

The Puppy Bowl wasn’t the only alternative Super Bowl show in town. Billed as the “All-American Halftime Show,” conservative org Turning Point USA promoted a MAGA-approved alternative show headlined by Kid Rock for people angry about Bad Bunny’s booking at Super Bowl LX. 

This year, Super Bowl LX’s official halftime show starring Bad Bunny averaged 128.2 million viewers – enough to put it in the all-time top four, but a dip from Kendrick Lamar’s record-setting 133.5 million viewers in 2025. The performance was almost exclusively in Spanish, a choice that inspired outrage from President Trump and others in his orbit, but still inspired a massive swath of people to tune in. 

MAGA’s hater halftime

While the Kid Rock halftime show was originally expected to stream on X, by game time Turning Point USA hit a snag and was pointing followers solely to its YouTube stream. “UPDATE: Due to licensing restrictions, we are unable to stream The All-American Halftime Show on X,” the organization wrote on X. “Head on over to our YouTube channel tonight around 8PM ET to watch the full show ????????.” 

On YouTube, the competing performance pulled six million concurrent viewers at its peak. On MAGA-friendly video site Rumble, the concert had been viewed 2.3 million times as of Thursday morning. If all two million of those views happened live, which isn’t likely, that could leave the Kid Rock-led show at around 8 million viewers without factoring in some of the niche networks with relatively small audiences like OAN that aired the performance. 

Much like the Puppy Bowl, Turning Post USA’s alternative Super Bowl halftime show was pre-taped. An intro video from U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth kicked things off, praising the organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk for its courage. 

During the headline performance, Kid Rock visibly struggled to lip sync the words to his own hit song “Bawitaba,” joining the backing track only occasionally – a fact made even more puzzling given that it was pre-recorded. MAGA-approved musicians Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice and Gabby Barrett also performed during the alternative halftime show. 

By Thursday afternoon, Turning Point USA’s video of the Kid Rock-led concert was up to 21 million views, which is closer to the only numbers that Turning Point has provided publicly. The NFL’s official YouTube channel racked up more than 78 million views of Bad Bunny’s performance during the same time frame.

Republicans vs. Bad Bunny

In a Truth Social post following Bad Bunny’s halftime show, President Trump called the international superstar’s notably joyful celebration “absolutely terrible.” “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying,” Trump said, sidestepping the fact that the NFL itself chose Bad Bunny to reach a massive, untapped audience within the U.S. and abroad. 

The game itself wasn’t always riveting, but Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show was widely considered to be a performance for the ages. The inventive Spanish language set showcased energetic choreography, intricate street scenes of New York and Puerto Rico, many nods to the island’s culture and its struggles, and even a real, live wedding. 

Trump wasn’t the only one to criticize Bad Bunny. House Speaker Mike Johnson told a reporter last year that the NFL made a “terrible” decision when it invited Bad Bunny, one of the most popular musicians in the world. “There are so many eyes on the Super Bowl, a lot of young, impressionable children,” Johnson said. 

The irony is rich given the fact that Kid Rock’s own songs have glorified statutory rape. The 2001 Kid Rock song “Cool, Daddy Cool” features the lines “Young ladies, young ladies, I like ’em underage,” and “See, some say that’s statutory, but I say it’s mandatory” – lines that drew fresh outrage leading up to the Super Bowl. 

Other members of the MAGA base questioned or outright denied Bad Bunny’s status as an American citizen, including super influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul, who called the performer a “fake American citizen” – a claim so plainly racist that even his brother called him out. “Puerto Ricans are Americans & I’m happy they were given the opportunity to showcase the talent that comes from the island,” Logan Paul wrote on X.