Super Polls

The best early numbers – the Nielsen ratings – won’t be released until Tuesday afternoon, but it seems Bad Bunny delivered the goods, at least as far as advertisers were concerned. According to CBS News, some 135 million people watched his much-dissected halftime show.

Appearing in a football jersey with the number 64 and the name “Ocasio” (his real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio), the world-famous 31-year-old pop star did not wear a dress, as some had fretted. Nor was he overtly partisan, though many of his songs have trenchant messages. Singing almost entirely in Spanish (to President Trump’s apparent irritation), Bad Bunny’s mini-concert was a mostly paean to the culture, resilience, and physical beauty of his native Puerto Rico.

The only words he said in English were “God bless America!” Traditionalists who remembered that the first three Super Bowls in the 1960s featured college marching bands smiled in relieved recognition. But Bad Bunny (is he just “Bunny” on second reference?) giveth and Bad Bunny taketh away: He then name-checked places in Latin America ranging from Argentina to Mexico, making the point that they are in the Americas, too.

I’m open to that argument and have been since two of my grandchildren were born in Puerto Rico. Whether my fellow Americans are equally receptive depends almost entirely on one’s political leanings – along with their age and ethnicity. Or, as David Montgomery, an analyst for YouGov, put it: “Young adults, Hispanics, and Democrats are especially likely to be satisfied with Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl halftime performer.”

The YouGov poll was done before Super Bowl Sunday – but weeks after the halftime show became politicized – to the point that Donald Trump began weighing in. Not surprisingly, 59% of Democrats were “very or somewhat satisfied” with Bad Bunny’s selection, with only 7% dissatisfied. Among Hispanics, the breakdown was 49%-17%, and among under-30 Americans, the split was 47%-13%. For Republicans, whites, and baby boomers, these numbers were nearly reversed.

In a related question, when asked to compare the Bad Bunny selection to the conservative alternative halftime show organized by Turning Point USA featuring Kid Rock, the numbers between Democrats and Republicans were mirror images of themselves.

In terms of viewership, the official NFL halftime show swamped the TPUSA counterprogramming, but Bad Bunny had the game lead-in, so that comparison isn’t fair. Taking no changes, he also enlisted a slew of A-list worthies, including Ricky Martin and the incomparable Lady Gaga. I wonder if a trend has started – one that will further divide us during future Super Bowls.

Halftime entertainment wasn’t the only line of demarcation. Seeking to determine why Americans tune into the Super Bowl Sunday spectacle, YouGov gave its survey respondents five choices: the primary tune in for the game itself; the halftime show; the commercials; the announcers’ commentary; and “none of it.”

The question about the poor announcers probably shouldn’t have been asked. It garnered 1% of men and 1% of women. Perhaps 1% of men like to measure themselves against the professionals to see if they really could have had a career in sports broadcasting. You know, give play-by-play man Mike Tirico a run for his money, as their mother once told them when they were teenagers. (Maybe the 1% of women who chose that answer have a crush on color man Chris Collingsworth?)

“None of it” was an interesting selection as well. I suppose those people simply don’t like football, but are either bullied into going to a Super Bowl party or just have a bad case of FOMO. Here, too, there wasn’t much difference between men (22%) and women (24%).

The other two options produced noteworthy gender differences. Only 20% of women answered that “the game itself” was their primary motivation for watching, which was less than half the number of men. Conversely, women were much more into the halftime show (27%), while only13% of men gave that answer. By a narrower margin, 22%-17%, women said the Super Bowl ads were the main draw.

Being more into the actual game apparently gave men a leg up in understanding just what the New England Patriots were up against Sunday. In a Marist University Poll conducted before the game, 62% of men correctly predicted that the Seattle Seahawks would win, which they did in a rout. Women had the right outcome, but barely: they went 49-45 Seahawks.

Marist also delved into why this event captivated the imaginations of most Americans, although Marist added other categories. Three in 10 respondents said the game itself is the main draw. But it added “the food and festivities” as a category, which was preferred by 22%, followed by the commercials with 18% and the halftime show with 17%. “Three percent enjoy participating in pools, party games, and gambling,” Marist noted. “One percent enjoy another part of the Super Bowl, and 8% either don’t plan to watch the Super Bowl or don’t have a favorite part.”

In the Marist survey, an impressive majority of Americans picked the right team. If it weren’t for the YouGov poll producing the same result, I might have questioned the Marist University poll’s objectivity: It had a rooting interest, as it revealed in its press release. “Fun Fact,” it noted. “Marist alum Jason Myers kicks for the Seattle Seahawks.”

He kicked well, too, booting five field goals, a Super Bowl record.