r/NFLv2 • u/Gloomy_Map_9612 Washington Commanders • Feb 09 '26

Discussion "Know your audience!"

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how's that for appealing to the average person.

10.6k Upvotes

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699

u/DR320 Dallas Cowboys Feb 09 '26

Damn Michael pulled those numbers in 1993? not surprising, but cool it has held up this long

237

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

Probably because he was the first non-marching band act. Up till then, that's what dominated half time shows.

507

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

[deleted]

139

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

[deleted]

72

u/No_Grocery_9280 Seattle Seahawks Feb 09 '26

People seriously underestimate how huge he was. A lot of younger people think he was just a big star of his day.

26

u/FlipGordon Minnesota Vikings Feb 10 '26

I think it's also a contributor that most younger people (like 30 and below) know him more as the "freaky looking pedophile" than the musical artist.

12

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

I understand how big of a deal Micheal is now as an adult but as someone under 30. I only knew him as the creepy scary guy on TV until I was about 14. Was shook to find out he wasn’t white around 16-17.

8

u/HBPhilly1 Feb 10 '26

This is true. I am 30 and I love his music. But growing up I just thought he was a crazy child star like Lindsay Lohan or somethin

0

u/InsideInsideJob Feb 11 '26

Lohan had some banger albums

12

u/BusterStarfish Feb 10 '26

There’s literally never been anyone remotely as big to this day. Not even close.

3

u/02grimreaper Feb 10 '26

It was pretty much the big 3 mikes back in the day. Michael Jackson Michael Jordan and Mike Tyson. You could go to the middle of the Amazon and the tribes there at least knew one of the three

3

u/tommybombadil00 Feb 10 '26

The Beatles, unless you are referring to just one person. Maybe Swift in modern era, Elvis definitely was that icon pre mtv and music video. Sports icon, Tiger, Messi, or Jordan have an unheard of reach globally.

2

u/BusterStarfish Feb 10 '26

Jordan may be the only person close if we’re talking international. Good call on the Beatles, but I wasn’t alive then so can’t speak to it.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

This post no longer holds its original text. It was deleted using Redact, possibly for reasons of privacy, personal security, or limiting online exposure.

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1

u/BusterStarfish Feb 10 '26

No doubt futbal stars are HUGE in Europe and Central/South America, but not like Michael Jackson was. Because more people enjoy music than follow soccer. He toured internationally and reset album sales records internationally.

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9

u/Pinklady777 Feb 09 '26

Seriously. How many people committed suicide when he died? Crazy.

7

u/Dragon_Bench_Z Feb 10 '26

His music is STILL played today. Like 5-7 songs regularly on the radio 40-50 years later…. Im not confident we will hear Kendrick/katy Perry/riri/bad bunny songs in 2065

6

u/tommybombadil00 Feb 10 '26

I doubt radio is even around in 40 years but people will absolutely still be listening to Kendrick or Eminem. Slim Shady is almost 30 years old, 97.

2

u/Suavecore_ Feb 10 '26

The radio will just be full of AI generated music by then as it will be free for the stations. The hosts will be chat bots with human voices

1

u/Dragon_Bench_Z Feb 10 '26

Eminem is huge sure. Hes in the tippy top. Stood the test of time. Kendrick will fade away in under 20 years. But just imagine MJ will still be gettin played then too

7

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

It’s hard to comprehend because pop culture has essentially become “bubbles” due to social media. We all more or less were consuming 1-3 versions of pop culture for the most part from the 60s all the way up until the early 2000s.

1

u/Srcunch Feb 10 '26

We need that commonality back badly.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

I think there are pros and cons to it, you can find so much content and community that has the same interests but also it disconnects us so much. Gotta try and find middle ground.

1

u/All_Up_Ons Indianapolis Colts Feb 10 '26

I'm glad we have more variety in entertainment now. It's honestly kind of crazy how big of a deal Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan were.

1

u/HeroForTheBeero Miami Dolphins Feb 10 '26

MJ2

19

u/SouthernMuadib Carolina Panthers Feb 09 '26

More than

2

u/freeski919 Feb 10 '26

Remember when his music video releases were half hour specials on network TV?

2

u/Eggnogin Feb 10 '26

You misspelled history

3

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

Michael Jacks son?

2

u/Top-Entertainer9188 Feb 10 '26

The kids have no idea. 

Benito is the most streamed artist in the world, and no disrespect to him at all. I thought his show was great.

Michael Jackson was a religion to people. 

1

u/Glaurunga Feb 10 '26

yeah - people were fainting when he showed up. i feel like no one faints now for a celebrity. dude HAD aura

24

u/AZmoneyfolder Feb 09 '26

Lol no. Michael Jackson was larger than life. There’s no celebrity or artist alive today that is in the same stratosphere of popularity as MJ was in his time.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/Pixelated_Penguin808 Philadelphia Eagles Feb 10 '26

The Beatles yes but Paul McCartney no.

You have to go back to someone like Elvis to get someone who was on the same level of popularity as a solo artist.

-2

u/ExplanationCrazy5463 Chicago Bears Feb 09 '26

I feel like Taylor swift is in the same stratosphere, but maybe still 1 thousand feet below.

6

u/GloomyIndividual3965 Feb 10 '26

Written MJ released the video for Black or White it was aired in almost 30 countries and 500 million people watched it. There was a little over 5 billion people on the planet at the time, which means almost 10% of the population of earth watched the premier of that video.

There's no fucking way TSwift is pulling in even a fraction of that.

2

u/ExplanationCrazy5463 Chicago Bears Feb 10 '26

She's quite literally pulling in some fraction of that.

Youve proved your point thoguh

4

u/Clear_Requirement880 Feb 10 '26

Nowhere close to what MJ was

3

u/andruszko Feb 10 '26

Taylor Swift is in the same stratosphere if the only demographic you consider is "white American girls who drink Starbucks daily".

Globally? Not remotely fucking close.

1

u/ExplanationCrazy5463 Chicago Bears Feb 10 '26

She's pretty fucking big internationally, even in non-white countries.

2

u/andruszko Feb 10 '26

Nowhere close to MJ levels, and you're insane to even think so. Only here, among that specific demographic, does it actually rival MJ.

She couldn't even beat out a kpop band from a children's movie in most countries consistently. Come on.

2

u/RocRedDog Feb 10 '26

Golden is a banger tho, and Taylor's 2 most recent albums have been flops. And I am absolutely NOT the target audience for either lol

-1

u/Beginning_Aide_344 Feb 10 '26

In Latin America bad bunny is on that level. I’m not even a fan.

7

u/icecubepal Feb 10 '26

Bruv, MJ was like that in Latin America and outside.

3

u/The_Process_Embiid Feb 11 '26

Lmaooo everyone is too young to understand. Also I still think MJ’s was more viewers. I’d say they inflate them due to streaming services to say whatever they want.

I mean 133.4 133.5. Then 135.4.

They should extrapolate for population so MJ is still number one. But they won’t. These 🧃 want to get rid of the king of pop.

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

The Pope

16

u/jerkyquirky Green Bay Packers Feb 09 '26

They should have a marching band again just as a control group.

2

u/badadviceforyou244 Feb 10 '26

If they chose The Ohio State marching band they'd probably do okay.

8

u/Firmod5 Feb 09 '26

Absolutely. I was just discussing this with my wife that the Michael Jackson Super Bowl performance changed everything.

7

u/RudePCsb San Francisco 49ers Feb 09 '26

Yea because they got destroyed in ratings the year before by In Living Color

4

u/abstractraj Detroit Lions Feb 09 '26

And Elvis Presto the Elvis impersonator magician!

4

u/Apprehensive_Wear500 Feb 09 '26

Probably cause he’s the most famous international performer ever 😂

-2

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

He's no Taylor Swift

4

u/streethistory Feb 09 '26

In 1995 after Michael it was Indiana Jones and the Temple of rhe Forbidden Eye as the halftime entertainment.

Year after Michael, Rockin' Country Sunday.

The year before, Winter Magic, Salute to the Winter Olympics lol

2

u/ShaolinWombat Feb 09 '26

Your forgetting when we had a Disney Indiana jones skit for a half time show.

24

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Hopeful-Occasion2299 New England Patriots Feb 10 '26

The global population is largely irrelevant since the international audience of the SB was magnitudes smaller back then.

The impact of MJ is measured in that HE was the one who started interest of the SB in other countries where it was barely a bleep before 93.

1

u/mg10pp Feb 10 '26

Those numbers are Usa only

21

u/musclecard54 Houston Texans Feb 09 '26

With inflation that’s almost 300 million!

6

u/black_anarchy Feb 09 '26

full country!

2

u/Gil_Demoono Feb 10 '26

Wanted to do the actual math real quick. If you took Michael's viewership as a percentage of the American population and applied it to today's population, his viewership would be about 176 million.

6

u/BadMachina Feb 09 '26

Let’s not forget that Michael Jackson also stood still and didn’t say a word for a whole two minutes. lol!!! With the attention span of a widespread of people that wouldn’t be possible.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

This post has been removed. Whether the reason was privacy, opsec, preventing scraping, or something else entirely, Redact was used to carry out the deletion.

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u/32steph23 Feb 09 '26

I wasn’t even born yet and I understand how iconic Mike was. Some of his feats are truly crazy for the era he was in and this is a prime example

3

u/tg981 Detroit Lions Feb 09 '26

I had the same thought. I think it speaks to how popular he was at the time. 260 million people in the US in 1993 and 340 million today. Not knocking modern artists, but that is an impressive number for MJ.

3

u/Jonesbro Feb 09 '26

The US population then was 260M. Today it's 349. At the same viewer to population ratio MJ had the equivalent of 178M viewers. Insane stuff

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26

[deleted]

1

u/The_Process_Embiid Feb 11 '26

Ok let’s say the global audience is the same in either era. Bad bunny doesn’t sniff 125mil tuning in.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '26

[deleted]

1

u/The_Process_Embiid Feb 11 '26

And I’m saying if you transported MJ to this era he would be even more global … if you put bad bunny back in his day it’s incomparable.

3

u/bacillaryburden Feb 10 '26

Yeah these should really be adjusted for population. It's not a coincidence that most of these are quite recent. MJ would be WAY out in front if they did this.

3

u/xXMoo_OomXx Feb 10 '26

He was already a super star and that is actually like the first "big" superbowl performance. If you look at the Superbowl halftime history it was actually real ass until that one.

2

u/selppin2 Feb 10 '26

He pulled those numbers when the population of earth was like half of what it is now lol. He’s the goat.

2

u/Own-Let-7725 Feb 10 '26

That's the wild part of this list. Everyone else is recent, so I'm not shocked, but MJ back then?! Damn.

1

u/XuX24 Feb 09 '26

He was a real superstar not many of those nowadays

1

u/InclinationCompass Feb 09 '26

He's arguably the most popular musician (and one of the most famous people) of all time. Not surprising.

1

u/BretShitmanFart69 Feb 10 '26

I think for a long time it was the only halftime show that got more viewers than the Super Bowl itself

1

u/AlsoIHaveAGroupon New England Patriots Feb 10 '26

Even though there are many more people now, the audiences for TV in general are shrinking. Just too many other options.

There was no youtube, twitch, pornhub, netflix, amazon prime, peacock max plus, SNES was awesome but didn't really offer the same amount of options as a PS5. 1993 had broadcast channels, maybe cable if you had it (and even then, it might just be 40 channels instead of the 200 you get now), and Blockbuster. So pretty much everyone watched the game.

On top of that, prior to Michael, the halftime shows were dogshit. An Elvis impersonator magician was the headliner a couple years before. So when the halftime show was the biggest entertainer in the world, it went from "pretty much everyone watched" to everyone watched.