Does Carrie Underwood Really Make Millions From Her Sunday Night Football Song?

Carrie Underwood has become a fixture for NFL fans on Sundays. When the afternoon games wrap up and fans switch over to NBC for the evening's marquee match-up, Underwood is there to greet them. "I've been waiting all day for Sunday night," she's been singing since 2013, and viewers reasonably suspect that she earns a hefty paycheck for the pre-game song. Rumors popped up on X, formerly Twitter early in the 2024 season proclaiming that Underwood gets paid $1 million each week for the song, totaling $18 million for the regular season, more than many players themselves. However, that's not the case at all.

"It's pretty pro bono," Underwood told Howard Stern during a May 2023 interview on "The Howard Stern Show" (via X). In her view, Underwood gets much more out of it than any monetary value. "It is an honor," she said. "I've had players come up to me, and they're like 'you get me revved up' and it's really cool." Even though she may not be getting paid $18 million a season, Underwood's Sunday Night Football gig is certainly keeping her in the public consciousness week in and week out ahead of a busy 2025 for the "Before He Cheats" singer. Her Las Vegas residency, "Reflection," concludes its four-year run in spring 2025 and she'll be joining "American Idol" as a judge, a show where she had one of the most epic auditions ever. 

The truth about Carrie Underwood not getting paid for her Sunday Night Football tune shouldn't come as much of a surprise since the NFL doesn't even pay its Super Bowl halftime performers. "We do not pay the artists. We cover expenses and production costs," an NFL spokesperson told Forbes in 2016. Instead of the millions they usually receive for performing, the artists get paid a union scale.

While the artists may not receive multi-million-dollar checks, the exposure they receive from the performance –- and the corresponding uptick in record sales, streams, and ticket revenue -– can be priceless. The Super Bowl continues to draw in more viewers, and 2024's championship game was viewed by 123.4 million people (via NPR), meaning Usher's halftime performance received considerable exposure. Since it coincided with the release of his latest album and tour announcement, the exposure was likely very helpful. Underwood gets a weekly audience of 22.4 million on SNF (via NBC), more than making up for the fact that it's a pro bono gig.