Nashville superstar Carrie Underwood returns for her ninth consecutive season as the performer of the Sunday Night Football theme song. A new intro video for "Waiting All Day For Sunday Night" debuted during the Sept. 12 broadcast of the Los Angeles Rams' 34-14 victory over the Chicago Bears.
Videos by Wide Open Country
The wait is finally over. Sunday Night is here.
Take us away, @CarrieUnderwood! pic.twitter.com/oXcUNBSgNS
— Super Bowl LVI on NBC (@SNFonNBC) September 13, 2021
"Shooting the new show open for Sunday Night Football is one of the highlights of my year," Underwood revealed in a press release. "I just love the fact that we get to reinvent it every year. The team behind these shoots is incredible and it's always a really fun day, especially this year getting to work with such amazing state-of-the-art technology."
We can?t WAIT for #SNF. How ?bout you, @CarrieUnderwood? pic.twitter.com/GK3n8lqD9z
— Super Bowl LVI on NBC (@SNFonNBC) August 30, 2021
"We are excited about this year's new collaboration with Carrie, which utilizes virtual production technology to generate real-time environments for Carrie's performance, including a 'tailgate' to salute this game's great fans, who have been 'waiting all day for Sunday night' and will be incorporated with their own user-generated tailgate videos," added Tripp Dixon, creative director of the SNF show open.
The show opener looks a bit different this year. The video features both cameos from NFL stars and self-recorded videos of fans at tailgates. For the first time, NBC's Sunday Night Football will open up with a virtual tailgate backdrop to Underwood's performance.
Sunday Night Football has been primetime television's No. 1 program for ten consecutive years.
Two years ago, the superstar was joined by a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. Guitarist and singer Joan Jett teamed with Underwood for the theme song, a nod to Jett's sound-alike standard "I Hate Myself For Loving You." Last year, it was back to just the country music queen belting out the memorable lyrics for NBC sports.
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"I will use any excuse I can get to work with Joan Jett," Underwood said in the 2019 video. "I just hope I can keep up."
The new arrangement of one of Jett's signature songs debuted in 2006 with Pink as its singer. From 2007 to 2011, Faith Hill sang the slowly-evolving anthem of prime-time football.
During Underwood's stint with Sunday Night Football, the song choice has changed twice. From 2016 to 2017, Underwood sang a revision of her Miranda Lambert duet "Somethin' Bad" titled "Oh, Sunday Night." Then the short-lived "Game On" became the theme song. A 2019 lawsuit from the writers of an earlier song titled "Game On" may have cut its run in the big time short.
This article was originally published on Sept. 20, 2020. It was updated on Aug. 30, 2021 after SNF released a teaser of Carrie Underwood singing and on Sept. 13, 2021 following the kickoff of the 2021 season.
