Thursday’s matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks featured a performance from DJ and music producer Steve Aoki. But fans at home may have missed it considering NBC only briefly aired it before abruptly cutting away to commercial break.
Tirico introduced Aoki on the NBC broadcast by calling him “one of the great DJ’s”.
“Here in Seattle, a performance from one of the great DJ’s, Steve Aoki entertaining the crowd,” said Tirico.
Aoki then introduced himself to the crowd before playing a remixed version of the song ‘Pursuit of Happiness’, originally from hip-hop artist Kid Cudi.
Just seconds into Aoki’s performance, NBC suddenly opted to cut to a commercial break, ending the Halftime Show entirely.
Steve Aoki, a DJ and music producer performed during halftime of the Thanksgiving night game between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers.
Unfortunately, fans at home only got to see it briefly before NBC abruptly ended their Halftime Show… pic.twitter.com/Mza68daM42— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 24, 2023
It was around 15 seconds that Aoki was even shown to those watching at home, not even enough time to finish the one song that was televised.
When you compare this to how other networks handled Halftime Show performances earlier in the day, it is certainly a mystery as to why NBC opted to abruptly cut away from Aoki.
The first game of the day, a matchup between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers, had hip-hop artist Jack Harlow perform during halftime. His performance, while not exactly well received, was at least shown for around six minutes.
Dolly Parton, the Halftime Show performer for the matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Commanders over on CBS, was also broadcast in its entirety for around six minutes.
Fans watching at home were certainly perplexed by the decision, which they made clear on social media.
I had to sit through the entire Jack Harlow performance just for NBC to cut away from this? https://t.co/Mwt8D2iKjU
— Clay 🎙 (@ClayOnAir) November 24, 2023
This alone was better than @DollyParton and @jackharlow but shame on @SNFonNBC for cutting it short #fail https://t.co/tdX6YnmuI6
— Ricardo (@coldcardo) November 24, 2023
It will certainly be interesting to see if we hear anything from NBC on why this decision was made.
