CBS might be the network best-known for appealing to grandparents with their regular programming, but TikTok users appear to agree that the network’s NFL theme song is what they’d most like to hear on Sundays.
A TikTok trend where users rank the five most notable NFL network theme songs had made the rounds in recent days. Based on Awful Announcing’s highly unscientific research, the NFL on CBS theme was the clear winner, beating out ESPN’s Monday Night Football theme, NBC’s Sunday Night Football theme, Fox’s NFL Sunday theme, and NFL Network’s theme (mostly used on Thursday Night Football in the past, but also on their other broadcasts).
@fylertunke🕴🏈♬ Best NFL Themes – DabKid99
This trend even went beyond simply ranking NFL themes, and became the soundtrack to dance routines as well.
In determining where TikTok stood overall on the five major NFL network theme songs, Awful Announcing compiled over 100 videos that included theme rankings. As this trend has popped up in previous years around this time, we limited our sample size to only videos that were created in August 2022. After charting the Top 5 rankings in each video, some of which contained “dueling” rankings between two people, we could determine some pretty clear sentiments.
As noted, the NFL on CBS theme, a track called “Posthumus Zone,” composed by the Los Angeles electronic music group E.S. Posthumus, was the clear No. 1 choice, garnering an average ranking of 1.85 out of 5.
Coming in second place, with an average ranking of 2.18 out of 5, was the Fox NFL Sunday theme, composed by Scott Schreer. Schreer has said it was partially inspired by the opening theme of Tim Burton’s Batman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbU4fPYRvcY
Rounding out the top three is NBC’s Sunday Night Football theme song, composed by the iconic John Williams, which echoes many of his famous movie scores. This one averaged a 2.68 ranking out of 5.
At this point, it was pretty clear that TikTok users had a clear Top 3 and a Bottom 2, as the remaining two themes were almost universally ranked low.
In fourth place, just barely, is ESPN’s Monday Night Football theme, which might sound like sacrilege to older NFL fans. But younger audiences just don’t appear to connect with it anymore. Dubbed “Heavy Action,” the piece was composed by Johnny Pearson in 1970, and perhaps that’s the problem. It scored an average ranking of 4.12 out of 5.
Finally, coming in last place with an average ranking of 4.14 out of 5 is the NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football theme. “Run To The Playoffs,” which was composed by David Robidoux, actually doesn’t sound too different from the others once it gets going. But those opening bells, which remind so many people of Christmas music, seem to do it in.
It’s worth noting that the NFL Network theme also garnered more No. 1 votes than the ESPN theme, and it appeared to be a sneaky favorite of some football-theme connoisseurs.
When asked about the last-place finish, an NFL Network spokesperson was nevertheless upbeat and cordial about the upcoming season, as well as a new entrant in the NFL theme rankings.
“Regardless of rankings and fan opinions on specific theme songs, we can all agree that we’re excited to kick off another NFL season in a couple of weeks,” said an NFL Network spokesperson. “It will also be exciting to see a new theme song – Prime Video’s original theme for Thursday Night Football – enter into the mix this season, as well!
Sure enough, someone is going to have to re-edit the TikTok sound to include the new Amazon Thursday Night Football theme, which should throw a wrench in the rankings when this trend comes back around next August. We’ll see if CBS can hold onto its crown or if the streaming service is coming for their title.
[TikTok]
