This is not a column about a girl from Barcelona or any body part en fuego. Nor is it a column about political, social or cultural battles—at least not directly.
Rather, it’s about two technology-business-related lessons broadcasters should take away from Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show vs. Turning Point USA’s “All-American Halftime Show.”
The first deals with the erosion of the gatekeeper function of broadcasters. The end of the broadcast monolith is nothing new. Then Tele-Communications Inc. CEO John Malone first postulated a “500-channel cable TV universe” in the early 1990s.
Fast forward several decades, and the arrival of internet streaming, YouTube, over-the-top SVOD and AVOD channels has exponentially grown that number. (YouTube alone accounts for about 60 million regularly updated channels out of a total 115 million channels worldwide.)
What is new is that TPUSA’s alternative programming, designed to compete head-to-head with the NFL’s halftime show, blended streaming and traditional linear television distribution to attract huge numbers and offer counter-messaging. (That’s all; I promise. I’m only brushing on the political/social/cultural component.)
According to YouTube, between 5 million and 6.1 million watched the “All-American Halftime Show” live, most of whom likely tuned away from the Super Bowl halftime show to watch, and within a few days attracted 19 million to 21 million more viewers.
On the linear side, Sinclair added a special hour to its “The National News Desk” on its CHARGE diginet, which aired TPUSA’s show. It proved to be the highest telecast ever on CHARGE—up 756% compared to the same time period in 2025 and 263% higher than 2026’s time period average.
Total viewers nearly hit 1 million. CHARGE was also the No. 1 multicast network among P18-49, P25-54 and P35-64 (Nielsen’s designation for 18-to-49, 25-to-54 and 35-to-64 year-olds, respectively) during the show.
(By the way, hat tip to Animal Planet’s “Puppy Bowl,” which drew 15.3 million viewers this year across multiple linear channels and the Discovery+ streaming service. But that competes with the Super Bowl pregame, so it’s a bit of a different story.)
The point is clear and simple. Local broadcasters, in certain circumstances, have an opportunity to offer programming that peels away a substantial number of viewers from competitors airing enormously popular events. Given access to both their linear digital subchannels and streaming, it’s reasonable to think large station groups could build a substantial national audience attractive to advertisers with such programming. There could even be room for station groups to work together to maximize distribution and share production costs.
Or as a complement to the main program, local broadcasters could offer local spins of that show, simultaneously, as a streaming channel.
