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During Thursday Night Football, Taylor Swift will be dropping a surprise look at her upcoming album Midnights. Her 10th studio album is scheduled for release tomorrow at 12 am EST.
Thursday Night Football has been abysmal this season. In Amazon Prime's first season as the lone television provider for the games, almost none of them have been particularly good.
They haven't exactly struggled to pull in an audience, but the games have not justified that. The New Orleans Saints and Arizona Cardinals come into this game hoping to reverse this trend.
The sneak peak of Swift's new album during the game serves to benefit both of them. Even if the games are bad, they carry a large audience. Thursday Night Football often holds the sports world captive. During the game is probably the best time to release something like that, because it'll be the biggest audience potentially all week.
However, it also benefits the NFL and Amazon Prime. Fans are growing tired of the poor product often shown on Thursday nights, and the matchup between two sub-.500 teams isn't exactly enticing.
However, there are few artists in the world with more fans than Swift. They will tune in for the sole purpose of seeing the sneak peek, and the NFL knows that. Eventually, Thursday Night Football will have a good game. In the meantime, count on Swift to keep people watching, at least for tonight.
Why does Taylor Swift need to save Thursday Night Football?
Thursday Night Football did not start out terribly. In fact, the game played in Week 2 was rather good. The Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers put on a show with a 27-24 victory.
The games since have not been very good. The Cleveland Browns defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers the following week in a matchup of poor teams. The following week, fans watched Tua Tagovailoa's second concussion in less than a week.
It continued to go downhill from there. The last two games have featured a lot of field goals, with the two winners scoring just 12 points each. The product has been bad and it might not get better tonight, but at least Swift is giving people a reason to stick around.
We will see if Thursday night's get better as the season progresses, keep your fingers crossed.
