At this point, you can't have Sunday Night Football without hearing Carrie Underwood kicking off the festivities. She's pretty much synonymous with NBC and the NFL on Sunday evenings. 12 years doing the theme, you practically become a part of the branding at some point. Sometimes, the games are fantastic, others might be quite underwhelming. Still, she always hypes everyone up all the same. However, Underwood almost didn't take the gig.
Recently, Fred Gaudelli, an executive producer for NBC and their football coverage, reveals Carrie was his first choice for the theme in 2006. However, she doesn't really want any part of it. She admits to Fred that the timing didn't add up for her after winning American Idol. Eventually, the network settles for Pink. Then, they pivot to Faith Hill who takes over for the six years that follow. However, she also wants to pass the opportunity to someone else after a while. Inevitably, they end up back at the well for Carrie Underwood.
Carrie Underwood Nearly Rejects The Chance to Do The Sunday Night Football Theme
By this point, Fred and the NBC execs have the perfect pitch for Carrie. "I said, 'Look, we're the No. 1 show in primetime television. This is going to air in front of 20 million people plus every single week,'" he explains. "Carrie's a football fan, I think it's kind of a natural. I showed her the demographic breakdown, and once that was done, she's like, 'You know what? You're right. We should do this.' And that began a now 12-year run."
It's hard to imagine anyone else doing the Sunday Night Football theme at this rate. However, it's entirely plausible that Carrie hangs it up after this current NFL season. She's one of the judges on American Idol now. Underwood still tours, maybe she wants to make another album, who knows? Perhaps she's going to be too busy like she was back in 2006. Regardless, she's here to stay for now.
