While Super Bowl LIX has already chosen its halftime performer, Kendrick Lamar, it appears that Netflix is trying to top that choice in its first-ever live telecast of an NFL Christmas Day game. They announced Beyoncé as the halftime performer for the game, which pits the Houston Texans against the Baltimore Ravens at 4:30 p.m. EST in the second half of an Xmas doubleheader.
The Kansas City Chiefs play the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first game on Netflix at 1 p.m. The games will also be aired on broadcast TV in the team's cities and will be on NFL+ on mobile devices.
This comes right after the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight, which drew 60 million viewers, though many had difficulty getting a consistent stream. Netflix hopes to eradicate those challenges by the time the games air. In 2023, the NFL's Christmas Day games drew close to 30 million viewers, so less than half the Paul/Tyson fight.
Houston native Beyoncé is expected to perform songs from her 11-time Grammy-nominated project Cowboy Carter, the album that pushed her into Grammy history. She is now the most nominated artist ever. Though no details about her set list have been released, this will be the first time she's performed any of the songs from Cowboy Carter live.
Naturally, as Beyoncé stumped for Harris on the campaign trail and granted her usage of her song "Freedom" with Lamar, the MAGA crowd is upset at 'libtard' Beyoncé getting in the way of their racism by performing at an NFL game. This comes after conservative commentator Candace Owens suggested that Beyoncé was paid $10M to appear in Houston for Harris. Beyoncé gave a short speech accompanied by Kelly Rowland, who also spoke.
The fake news was quickly removed from Owens' IG page, but Beyonce's mom, Tina Knowles, addressed it on her page.
"The lie is that Beyonce was paid 10 million dollars to speak at a rally in Houston for Vice President Kamala Harris," Tina wrote with a screenshot of Owens' page after the post was taken down. "When In Fact: Beyonce did not receive a penny for speaking at a Presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris' Rally in Houston."
She added, "Fact: Beyonce did not receive a penny for speaking at a Presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harrris's Rally in Houston. In fact she actually paid for her own flights for her and her team, and total Glam. They are not only lying and disrespecting Beyonce's name but they are trying to further discredit the power of our vice president! When does the lies and rumors stop? Of course you won't see this in the news !!!!!"
John Legend backed her up, saying, "Let em know, Ms Tina! We all performed/appeared for free because we care about our nation's future."