Thank you again for joining me another week for It's a Numbers Game with Ryan Gurdusky. I want to ask you to like and subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts or where you get listening to your podcast, the iHeartRadio app. And I want to start this week by just acknowledging and taking a second for the horrible airline tragedy in Washington, DC that occurred a lot of people lost their lives, and I hope that you can just
keep them in your thoughts in prayers. With all the heavy news that came out in January, I want to talk with something lighter and look towards February. You know, it's our shortest month. It's Black History Month, President's Day, Valentine's Day, but it's a really big month for pop culture. February starts off with the Grammy Awards on February second,
which is the highest prize for music artists. Then they have the Super Bowl the week after, and then at the very beginning of March, which is technically still February, since it's the shortest month, you have the Academy Awards. So I thought we'd take a break from politics for one week and look at pop culture. Kicking off the show this week is my first River Page. River is a reporter for the Free Press. He wrote a fantastic review of the Oscar nominated movie Amelia Perez, and I
thought I would have him on for some pop culture topics. River, thanks for being on the show.
Yeah, thanks for having me, Ryan.
So I want to start off with talking about the Academy Awards, which you wrote about, which are on March second, as I said, and those of the people who haven't who have been following, there's ten nominees for Best Picture. They are Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune, Amelia Perez, I'm Still Here, the Nickel Boys, The Substance, and Wicked. Now, because this is a data podcast, I
want to start off with a piece of data. Of the ten movies that have been nominated for Best Picture, they have made a total of one point seven billion dollars worldwide. But that's only because two movies, Wicked and Dune Part two made one point four billion dollars. That's really not a lot of money for like movies. So my first question for you is, like, why is the Academy so heavily like nominating a bunch of art house movies that not a lot of people are watching.
Well, they've sort of always done this. I think it's a it's a bit of snobbishness. I don't completely think it's a bad thing. You know, I don't want I don't know the Peppa Pig movie or whatever nominated for Best Picture. You know, they usually throw in a blockbuster to like Wicked in this case.
Last year they had Oppenheimer and Barbie, which were big movies. They had Top Gun, Elvis and Avatar the year before. There are big movies nominated a bunch of times this movie this year, lots of movies about either trainees or people who don't have or what was in concrete spoiler they don't have jen afroditeite situation. Yeah, there's a lot of that going on.
Yeah, it's always the topic of the day. They love like a SOB story and like it's usually they like a political thing, but it's it's like very liberal. It's not quite leftists, like for instance, the Amelia Perez thing Glad, which is like the evil like gay rights watchdog, like professional you know, snarkers or whatever. They hated Amelia Perez.
It's actually come out that the transactress who plays the Mexican drug lord who becomes trans and Amelia Perez has made a bunch of tweets saying that like Muslims should be banned from Europe.
And like she has praised Hitler. Hitler just had opinions on the Jews like she was she just she just she just got rid of her Twitter account like today because she she has some spicy tweets on World War Two, you wrote in the Free For those who don't know what we were talking about, you wrote in the Free Press, you described the movie as a quote Spanish language musical about a transgender Mexican drug lord and her girl boss
of attorney. That is doesn't sound like it's when that people are breaking their doors down to see.
No, they're not. It did so badly it barely even released in the United States. It did so badly in Mexico that a government like consumer protection agency had to get involved to get people their ticket refunds because so many people were requesting though, really, yeah, that's so fun. It did really badly. It was hated by audiences. A lot of critics didn't even like it, but the Academy seems to love it, which isn't totally in line with them.
They love picking up these sort of like sad sap movies with you know, liberal politics that are sort of five years behind wherever Twitter is. This is just what they do. They've been doing it for years.
Do you do you think so? Some one of our mutual friends said, hollywoo Wood is like Detroit on a hill, Like it's just dead. It's a dead city. Is that what this? Because they could have I mean I don't really I saw a few movies this year, but they could have done something better, Like I'm sure there was a better crop to pick from, even from the streaming
movies or must have been a better one. Is it just that they had, Like there's a lot of money and engines that go into like getting a nominated movie for Best Picture stuff. Is that just what it was?
Or is that like, well, there's three types of movies that are made today. It's like blockbusters for the Chinese middle class. It's sort of like weird can't focus, made for streaming like made to watch on your phone, sort
of Netflix trash. And then there are like art house movies that are bad, but like they're they're bad in a way that you're supposed to feel smart for watching them, like conclaves like this, it's a terrible, boring slog, but you feel like you're a smart person for sitting through three hours of it.
Yeah.
There was what movie was it that was like three and a half hours long that I was like, oh, I kind of want to see this. And I looked at this brutalless brutalist and they're like, it's three and a half hours long, and I was like, what's it about? And they're like the guy who made brutalist architecture. I'm like, who is gonna watch that movie?
Yeah?
Three and a half. I can't. I can't do that. I went and last year or the year before, I can't remember. I saw Killers of the Flower Moon in theaters. Martin Scorsese is four hours long, and to watch that in theaters is so brutal. I didn't bring a jacket. I was like shivering in the movie theater because I was in South Florida. They keep everything like sixty five degrees inside there. I had to pee so bad. But I was like there's no intermission, yeah, and I was
like this is this is just too much. I mean, it was good because Martin Scorsese is good, but I mean, yeah, he needs an editor, so to be a top two hours, it's as much as I can handle.
He's he's he's at the point in his career where he doesn't like no one demands some edit his movie. Because even like To the Party, which is like my one of my favorite movies of all time, would have been great if it was twenty minutes shorter, and I was like, this is it's still a master it's amazing, but like we didn't need the last twenty minutes. We just didn't need them. And but you can't say Martin Scorsese. No. A couple of these movies like whoever means the Brutalist,
it's not Martin Scorsese. So like I'm sure a four hour movie or three and a half hour movie was too much. And then as far as like the actors who are nominated, A lot of them I'm not like super familiar with, but there's not a lot of There's Demi Moore, who is she's nominated for her first award ever. I think she's never been nominated before for her movie which was like a horror movie about like a body.
Of business, substance, which I loved, did you a lot
of people hated, But yeah, it's about this. To me, Moore is this aging pilates instructors, sort of like a Jane Fonda character, like TV pilates instructor who gets aged out and takes this the substance, which basically turns her into Margaret Quayle, who is like a young hot actress, and so she has an alter ego she has she can only spend one week as each person, and if you disrupt the balance and try to spend more time as your younger self, you like slowly become this like
weird monster. It's very campy. It's really it's stupid, Like the entire concept is stupid, but it's it's very campy and fun. I'm kind of surprised that it was nominated for an Oscar honestly because it's.
I think it's her lifetime.
She means award.
I think that's basically what it is. Like, Hey, you you've you've lived, you're sixty, you're still got a career, and like, let's give you an award for something because you make.
It's like we regret not giving you, you know, award for g I Jane or whatever. So we're gonna do this. Yeah, yeah, I'm.
A sport, although I did say probably get bad, but you know, yeah, not like strip teas, but like maybe one of the other like ghosts. I don't know, like you like you made it, You're still around, like you're still relative. Swells has got Alzheimer's, Like, you know, he's your ex husband. Let's give you an award just because we should. And then I saw the Kieran Culkin movie, which was incredibly boring, but I'm a big fan of his,
so I kind of hope that he wins. Do you have any opinion of who you think would win.
For Best Actor or best hope and think that Sebastian stan might win.
What movie was he in?
He played Trump in The Apprentice, which is the movie about relationship with Roy Moore. I actually really liked it. It was I mean, of course, it's, you know, a hit piece because it portrays Trump raping his ex wife, which she alleged in divorce proceedings and later retracted. I wrote a piece a review of this on the Free Press, but I thought that it humanized Trump in a way
that I wasn't really expecting. Really from a movie with its politics, and it really was more just about like the relationship between Trump and roy Cone, and I just find roy Cone to be like an endlessly fascinating figure.
Do you think that like Trump will like loom over entertainment in the next four years like he did over the last four years.
I don't.
I think a lot of these people are burned out, Like there just hasn't been you know, if you think about what it was like in you know, January of twenty seventeen, like it was so much more hysterical, Like there's still some hysteria, but it was so so much worse. I think a lot of people are like, we've been through Trump, we know what we're.
Dealing with, and there's only one just don't have the.
Bandwidth for it anymore, and he has a mandate. I mean, you can only I mean, I'm sure you'll still have some terrible libtard movies that come out, but I don't think it's going to have a complete domination over the culture.
You can even look at something like SNL, which you know it's still has a liberal bent, but it at least they have somebody who like can do a convincing Trump now and like actually makes funny jokes and like you know what I mean, like there at the very least, like people are still like willing to laugh.
Her.
Santa Glam has deleted her crying video, which she would not have done for you. They'd all be crying videos right now. And the fact that she deleted her crying video was like a lot.
No, they would have like awarded her at the Kennedy Senator like eight years ago. Yeah, see you so do you?
Who do you think it would win for Best Picture? Then? I heard of Nora is Good movie. I didn't see it, though I've heard it.
I've heard of Nora is Good. I haven't seen it either. I think that Amelia well, actually Amelia Perez made I don't know. It's the voting already been done. I don't know how this works.
I don't know. It's for another month. I think three weeks run over. I don't know. I don't know the answer to this.
Yeah, the Nancy stuff made us.
I don't know.
I think has a good.
Chance doesn't go well, yeah.
Yeah, I think it'll. If it's not Amelia Perez, I think it'll probably be conclave.
Oh god, Okay, Well we're going to talk about the Grammys next. Before we do, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Please stay tuned. The Grammys are being held on February second after this podcast is released, but before we're taping it, so we don't know the winners are yet, and the big nominees are
Charlie XCX. She's got an album called Bratt Billy Eilish, The Rise and Fall of the Midwest, Princess by Chapel Rone, Tortured Poet Society by Taylor Swift, and Cowboy Carter by Beyonce. Now let me give you guys a little data to chew. One Dance is the most Grammy Award winning artist of all time. She has won thirty two awards. She's had ninety nine nominations, but she has never won the coveted Album of the Year awards, spite being nominated five previous times.
This is her sixth nomination and River what frustrates me a little bit about like And I'm not a Beyonce like fan, per se. I don't hate her, but I don't really care. But every time she doesn't win this award, we have a national conversation about how America is racist because she doesn't have another trophy and what are your feelings? Are they right because as she doesn't have her Album of the Year award.
No, they're not.
I mean it's yeah, this happens constantly. I think it's it's because of her fan base, which is like or at least her online like hardcore, the Beayhive as they call it. It's like thirty five year old black woman with master's degrees and like the most psychotic gig guy you know. And that's who's who's bullying the Grammys and everybody.
You know, Cowboy Carter, Yeah, crashing and it's it's trash.
It sucks. She so word on the Street I'm gonna do by w Wendy Williams. Now word on the street is that she, like a decade ago, Beyonce performed at the CMA Awards with the Dixie Chicks right and got a very icy reception that she took very personally, which by the way, it was probably an icy reception war to the Dixie Chicks and then to her right. But she apparently was so offended by this that she was like, one day We're going to make a country album and
now she has and it's not good. Balt's mats some good music, like if you play like crazy in love or whatever, like in the club at you know, yeah, I don't hate it. People still love it.
Yeah, she's great, yea.
Some good nice club hits. But it's not a good country album, but pro album. It's like somewhere weird in between. She covered Uh, Dolly Parker Joline, but then she was like, don't take my man. I'm like, who's coming for jay Z?
Girl?
Like especially now to jar Jar Binks. Look at who standing next to you. Nobody's coming for him.
Well, it's so well, what like the thing that gets me and I think that thing that annoys some people, like especially entertainers, is a sense of entitlement. Like she feels entitled, and not only when something doesn't happen for her. It's like a conversation about a Marria. I want to just give the listeners something like this that I did
not know until I started researching us. These are the lists of people who have never won a Grammy, not one Grammy, not one time, Abba, The Beach Boys, Bob Marley, Dean Martin, Diana Ross, Guns N' Roses, Lana del Rey, Queen and Beyonce has more Grammys than Mariah Carey, Madonna, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles combined. I look almost as much as Michael Jackson if you added to that, like Michael Jackson barely crosses them over, I think by one
or two wards. But for some reason, America is a deeply racist country because she for some reasons, One think it's an entitlement, and I think it's an entitlement you've see in other parts of our culture. And I think maybe like the intensity towards any criticisms around her where you have to you know, if anyone says anything bad. Therefore it's a combination of I guess Black America or
something some random thing. It's very it's a very strange relationship with fans that we like, we're all kind of forced through. My other question is is so one of the predictors of who could win is Charlie XCX Now Charlotte for those who don't know, her album called Brat was like very like ingratiated with the Kamala Harris campaign. It was Brat Summer for her. So do you think that because Kamala loss are gonna give it to Charlie
XCX is like a isolation prize, cancelation prize. You didn't win the White House, but Charlie XCX is gonna win for all of you. I don't know.
I think they might be too like traumatized by it. Like I feel like every time like a democrat heres like three six y five or something, they're just gonna like it's gonna be like Vietnam flashbacks. Because the Kamala Harris campaign vastly overestimated the number of homos in America. Like, I'm like, there's not that many of it. I was like, I'm living for like the brat, you know what I mean. I'm like, if your message as a politician appeals to me a bit like a gay culture critic, it is
not for America. You are not what do you do do a retreat? So I don't know. I think they might. They might be a little too It might be a little too soon. You know, she might have to get an honorary award twenty years from now.
Do you think a ward show still matter?
Uh? No, they better to me, but they don't matter. It's like I think the radio doesn't even matter anymore. I don't even know what's on it? To be completely honest, right, it's everybody. There are people who I listen to all the time who are like famous, and I'll mention their name to somebody and they're like, who you know. I think that streaming has really like changed the way the music industry works, and the Grammys haven't really kept up
with that. Yeah, there are you know, people who are only musicians who are only famous on TikTok, musicians who are only famous on streaming. And then there's like people that you hear at CVS, you.
Know, yeah, or the doctor's office waiting room. Yeah right, and I'm like, oh, this is what from the top end of this person. I will just say this one little once again data point for the listener. So the Grammys, on like other ward shows, their viewership was up last year sixteen point nine million people. And I right about what does the financial financial win fall from winning one of these awards. So Bruno Mars, the singer Bruna Mars, saw his ticket sales per night show p nic.
One of thes people.
By the way, I like Bruno Mars, but anyway, his the cause his number went from like one hundred and thirty thousand to two hundred thousand per show, and Taylor Swift after she won her first Grammy went from one hundred thousand to six hundred thousand, and so I mean there's something. I mean, people do listen, there is a financial incentive for these artists to win.
What do you think about Taylor Swift because her her fans are very similar to Beyonce is I mean they obviously they can't pull the race card. They but it's also a sense of entitlement that she should win every Grammy, every award.
Yeah, every album should be but she has that. She's tied Frank Sinatra and Who's Who's Stevie Wonder for the most best most album of the years ever. Listen. She produces a ton of music. Some of it's really like catchy. Some of it I have no interest in whatsoever. I'm not like I would never go buy a ticket to
a show. I would never prop But if it comes on the radio, if I'm listening to the radio, or if it pops on one of those like playlists on Spotify, I will listen through and I'll probably know the words to my handful of her songs. But like I'm I don't, I don't understand that I did go to one of
her concerts because my friend an extra ticket. This is like years and years ago, and her fans were borderline like terrifying because like they had my homemade one of one was an overweight, middle aged man who had like made a homemade sweater of all of her cats. And I was like, this is very intense, Like no one will ever love me in my life as much as this middle aged man loves taylorsh Web And I find that you have very strange why do.
You Yeah, yeah, they think she's like Bob Dillwood, like she could barely right. I don't know what you people are saying. I mean my friend Nick Beloane for the Thought Topics podcast, he says something very light Nick about Taylor Swiff and her fan of one time, which is that Taylor Swift is as deep as some people can go. And that's okay, And yeah, I mean I think that that's that pretty much sums it up. I mean, but that's not.
Yeah, she's she's fine, Like she's fine. Is she a genius? No, but she's fine. Like I don't hate her, and I don't understand. I think people just don't like success, so they want to trash someone like her. They want to trash them, like Beyonce whatever and like whatever, Like they're more annoyed at their fans or the success than you are at them. They're fine, they're whatever, but like they're
not a genius. They didn't change music, like I mean, they're not I don't know, like they're not the Beatles or whatever else.
Yeah, I think that there's sort of a parallel between between both Beyonce and Taylor Swift and the sort of like you know, Marvel movie, uh so blockbuster like made for mass general consumption to where like you know, Beyonce was born in Houston, but in my mind she's like incorporated in Delaware, you know what I mean, She's she's an.
Llcy so brilliant. That is so brilliant. That is such a brilliant line. She was born in ustimp but incorporated in Delaware. Yes, yes, you know, it is just it is inoffensive. But and she does a lot of Janet Jackson cosplay. If you notice, if you listen to jan Jackson like the nineties and you listen to Beyonce, it's a lot of copying. It's just what I noticed, a lot of it. But yeah, do you have a person you like to see when if you care?
Chapel Rock, Well, I actually would like Charlie to win, just because I love that album, but I I'd also like to see Chapel roon when she'd like the rise of BD West Princess. I find Chapel Room personally very annoying.
She's extremely insufferable.
Yeah, that somebody you have to mute on Twitter. But I'm like, get the lesbians a win, you know what I mean, I've only ever had like Brandy Carlile was after I told these like boring, you know.
Yeah, lesbians haven't gotten enough praise enough in the last few years. It's been a rough go for the lesbians, you know. Yeah, Allen left the television and Rosie went crazy. All they have is Chapel Run.
Yeah. Well in Billie Eilish too, she's a lesbian girl. Look at her.
She dresses like Cedric the entertainer. You're so funny, Okay, yes, going to the Sports River. Thank you so much for being on the show. Where could people go to read your work?
You can find me at the Free Press. I write the Digest a lot. I do a lot of culture criticism Twitter.
It's so funny.
Yes, Twitter, So.
Thank you, thank you. My Twitter is at River Underscore is underscore.
Nice River page. Thank you so much for coming on, and we will be right back after these words. Welcome back. So I'm going to admitstling to my listeners upfront. I know very little about sports. I like watching it occasionally, I love going to a live event, but it's all sportsball to me. So I brought on two people to talk about the Super Bowl, who do know what they're
talking about. My two guests are Dylan gwen he is the sports editor for Bright Barton News, and Dan Roberts, he is the editor in chief for Front Office Sports. Thank you all for being here.
Thanks for having us.
So let me start off with So February ninth is the Super Bowl between Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City chief Kansas City Chiefs have won for the last two years in a row, and if they win this time would be the first time ever according to Wikipedia anyway, that team has won three consecutive years. Going into this game, the Eagles have a fourteen win three loss record and
the Chiefs have a fifteen win, two loss record. Dylan, I'll start with you going into this game, does either team have a specific advantage, like you think that I'll probably have an advantage, you know as a whole.
Well, if you ask most of Twitter, that advantage would be the referees for the Chiefs. Well, there's been a lot of controversy over this over ever since the twenty twenty one postseason, the Chiefs have had a notable advantage in the number of penalties called for their opponents and are against their opponents and not for them. A lot of the critical calls in these games have gone the Chiefs way and not their opponent's way. There was recently a Warren Sharp did a study on this recently going
back to the twenty twenty one playoffs. So there's been a lot of controversy over this. And it used to be just a tinfoil hat kind of thing, you know, guys like me on the internet whatever. But now Troy Aikman's gotten involved. Troy Aikman. Troy Aikman is the legendary
Hall of Fame quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. He is now an ESPN color analyst for Monday Night Ball, and he called the Chiefs playoff game against the Texans a couple of weeks ago in which there were a few highly controversial calls in this game and they all went the Chiefs way. And this wasn't during the game, but he told Jimmy Treana of Sports Illustrated yesterday, I believe it was that, you know, hey, the NFL's got to get this under control, because the NFL is sitting here
telling people to gamble on these games. The NFL is pushing gambling, their embracing gambling in a way they have not ever done before. And you're telling people to spend their money on these games and gamble it away. Meanwhile, you've got these ridiculous calls in these games that for some reason always seem to benefit this team from Kansas City, and people are people are scratching their heads like can
you trust it? Can you trust what you're watching? Which is a critical critical component of gambling.
Dann what are you saying?
Well, let me just add here. I mean, Dylan's right that in some ways the have become the story when you talk about the Chiefs, and I always say, the truth flies somewhere in the middle. In other words, he does seem to get some calls and in the big Bills Chiefs game, and God bless Josh Allen because I don't know any other quarterback who's lost this many times in the final game to get to the Super Bowl
to the same guy. But you know, there was I would say the most controversial moment was not getting the first down call. There was a key first down that the rest said they were short. Side note. People say, I can't believe we're still having three human beings eyeball this instead of lasers and computers. And my answer to that is, don't leave yourself in a position where you have to get this one key first down to win the game. I mean, they didn't do enough to win
the game. So yes, I think Mahomes gets some calls. But also they tend to just perform in playoff moments and they tend to beat you. This was the season where they squeaked by the most times. In other words, a number of games this year won by the Chiefs were won by three points or fewers. So are they getting calls. Yes, Are they only getting to the super Bowl because they get those calls? No, they tend to get it done in the postseason.
Yeah, Dan, I want to ask you about this question when it comes to Super Bowl because I you know, the NFL is a thirteen billion dollar year industry, and I know there's some kind of profit sharing incentive within the NFL. Is there do teams get like some kind of a bonus that they when the Super Bowl is? Like, does sales of their merchandise go up? Like what?
You know?
Does just the losing team sale merchandise all go to Africa?
You know what?
Like what exactly happens? Is there a financial incentive? Not just like the trophy it's up, but does the coaches get more money or anything? So?
So yes and no, they all split revenue equally, which is why it's so lucrative to be a part NFL owner. And by the way, knew this season the NFL opened its stores to private equity stakes up to ten percent. The other leagues had all done that for years. The NFL had sort of dragged its heals. So as a result,
you saw a number of new investors came in. And and what I always say in business, you know, never say anything as a guaranteed investment, But boy, owning a piece of an NFL, NBA, or Major League Baseball team is pretty damn close to a sure thing. In other words, you're almost guaranteed within two to four years to be able to turn around and sell your stake for more money. But all that said, it's a revenue split. Yes, all the players get an extra bonus for winning a Super Bowl,
some of them bigger than others. Saquon Barkley, who's the big running back on the Eagles, the Giants let him go a big mistake. He has something like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars bonus coming his way, and Mahomes has more than a million dollar bonus coming his way. The rest of the guys, it's like one hundred and fifty k I think for winning a Super Bowl. But you brought up merchandise sales. Sure, you could argue merchandise
sales benefit probably teams sponsorships benefit. After winning a Super Bowl, you could charge more for your season tickets. All that said, specifically with the Chiefs, it's diminishing returns at this point. These guys won the last two. They're about to do a three pet. Anyone who's spending money on Chiefs merch or chief season tickets already is. And the Eagles last one in twenty eighteen. In other words, there's a reason I think that a lot of people are less interested
this year. Ticket sales, in fact, on the resale market have dipped a little bit in the last week. Still extremely expensive, but nowhere near where they we're right now a year ago, because I think there is some Chiefs fatigue. So all that said, there's a benefit to the teams, but not a direct automatic, you know, X number of extra dollars from winning another Super Bowl.
So I have this internal conflict because one, I really don't care, but two, I'm a New Yorker. The only thing about sports was really trained to do is hate Boston. And then I met Philadelphia fans. I was like, ooh, those Boston people are not that bad. Or actually, like I've really underestimated those Boston people. They're way less intense. But you know, I always for an underdog. I like, I would love to see a Bills win or World Series one day, or the Jets win or whatever, just
because like, Okay, great they finally won. But like it's hard for me to like the Eagles in a really tough way. But the whole Kelsey Travis Taylor Swift thing is America rooting against the Chiefs. What would you say doing.
I don't know. Last year, I would have absolutely said, yes, there's no question about it. The saturation was to the m degree and you got shots of her after, you know, every three plays, you'd get a shot of her in the luxury suite, or even when there was no reason, even when you know Travis Kelcey wasn't even on the field, that you would get, you know, the obligatory Taylor Swift shot.
This year, I think the networks were a lot more controlled with how they broadcast her, Like you got all the tweets, the social media, her entering the stadium, stuff like that, she got to see what she was wearing, all the wies got to get excited about that or or or whatever. But the end game shots, and I don't know if anybody else agrees. I thought they were more toned down this year than they were the previous year.
So I don't I don't know that the hate or the over hate maybe too strong of a word, but I don't know that the saturation overload of Taylor Swift was to the degree this year that it was last year. And I don't know that that's really keeping people away from the game. It's definitely not bringing any males to the game. It may bring me a lot of teenage girls to the game. Now, the NFL cares a lot about that because they're expanding. That's your plus one demo there, so the NFL is very excited.
About and teens often have their parents' credit cards.
So there you go, there you go, there they go.
Now, I would add to what Dylan said, I think that if anything, there's been a flip, and it's the Kelsey brothers who are oversaturated. Now. I do think that they toned it down with the tailor shots. By the way, we've written at FOS about the very real bump that the Taylor Swift thing has brought in terms of female fans. So if you're the league, why wouldn't you keep showing her?
Maybe this is just my opinion. I think it's Travis and Jason who have become way oversaturated, and there's evidence of this because Jason Kelsey has a new late night show that has not done very well so far it's debut. I think they're in every damn advertisement, you know, I get it. The idea is that this is the new Peyton and Eli Manning, And again they're charismatic, they're you know, they're they're pretty good on cam are both these guys. But boy, I'm seeing way too much of them now.
Look Sam goes for like Matthew McConaughey. I mean, there's always someone of the moment who is overly saturated in the TV ads.
Yeah, I mean, but Paydon and Eli were really likable in a way that I don't think the Kelsey bro I don't remember the Eli Manning taking a doing like an I got a vaccination commercial that was like, it was really like, it's it's a weird ad you'd put a football player. And I want to talk just one more time about the money situation. So I looked this up.
The year I was born, a commercial for the Super Bowl cost six hundred thousand dollars for a Thursday, and then it'll be about eight million this year, do I mean? And we had a lot of iconic commercials I feel like more older. I mean, when we had the Budweiser, a Frog's and you know, God made a farmer. More recently, whatever Jews does the ads actually do as much as for branding as people think that for eight million dollars for thirty seconds, you you want to know about those well feeling.
I think I think the big the big thing you're seeing in the ads. So this is I'm glad you brought it up because this year normally the one hundred thousand dollars annual increase in the average price of an ad for a Super Bowl ad. So last year it was roughly seven million dollars for a thirty second ad. This year, Fox isn't really saying what it is, but it's believed being around, it's believed to be much more expensive.
The number we do have is that the average price for an ad this year has increased by five hundred thousand dollars, So that's a fivefold increase over what the average price has been up until now. And you ask yourself why, And it's because you've got a lot of new brands that are getting involved in advertising right now and they're seeing this and this may be a little
bit of a Taylor Swift effect. You've got a lot of businesses out there that don't traditionally or haven't traditionally advertised in the Super Bowl, and now all of a sudden they're like.
Well that gotting point, Yeah, we got to do this, and a lot of the older brand demo, Yeah.
For sure, and a lot of the older brands that were talking you probably were on when you were younger. Ryan. The automotive brands, they're pulling out, largely. State Farm is pulling out because the controversy surrounding the insurance of the California wildfires. They're pulling out. And now you've got this new breed, this new money kind of coming into the thing, and they're flooding the market and it's radically increased the
average price of a thirty second ad. Now, so it's a whole new generation of advertisement.
I did not know that.
Hey, the story this year, Ryan, so far is AI ads, which, boy, if you weren't sick.
Of what are we the ads are? They like that? It's like an AI made you.
Know, artificial intelligence companies and services, you know, whether it's whether it's Chat, GBT, imitators, DASS, companies that use AI for their platform. It's all about AI. Now, let's replace all the writers, right And in some ways to me, this is the new crypto super Bowl. Remember two or three years ago, suddenly the crypto companies came flooding in FTX was the biggest We all know what happened there. In my prior life, I was editor in chief of a crypto news site and it was right at the
peak where suddenly Coinbase was doing an ad. If you remember coinbases, the one that I really think was the most effective. It was just a QR code bouncing around the screen like a screen saver. It led a lot of people to quite literally hold their phones up to the screen. What is this?
You know?
And so when you ask how big is the impact of a Super Bowl ad? I think in most cases it's not as impactful as it once was.
I'm with you.
I don't think that there are many examples in the last maybe six years of really iconic Super Bowl ads. When you ask iconic superl ads, I still think of all the ones from my childhood. There is the VW kid and the Darth Vader costume, right yeah, Unting in the car, and then all the Budweiser ones, the frogs, you know what, all those ads. But I remember that Coinbase one. And this is going to be the AI Super Bowl because crypto companies are no longer spending.
Fine, who do you think is the most important player for each team? And who do you think is the weakest link.
Well, well, the most important player on the field is always the quarterback. Doesn't really matter if we're talking x's and o's, that we're talking football, it's always the quarterback. And the most important player for the Chiefs is is Patrick Mahomes. There's no questioned about it. He's Houdini out there. He's just he just does a lot of incredible things. He's kind of like Kerr.
Got most of the points last time.
Very Bucker is vital to that team because they're kicker. So yes, exactly right.
He hail Mary's right before the game and they are getting Bucker.
If Bucker would come off on this chat, he should.
He deserves it, and I and I would be remiss for not mentioning him. But as far as the most important, I mean, Patrick Mahomes is the most important for the Chiefs and and and honestly, I don't know. I mean, you want to say Jalen Hurst, who's the quarterback for
the Eagles. But they've really gotten to this point in this season on the on the the strength of Saquon Barkley, who who as you mentioned before, came over from the Giants, and that and that deal that will be much chagrined in New York for many, many years, and he's really carried this team. So I mean, as far as I see it, those are those are your two most important players. But the Super Bowl always gives us an unknown who plays some surprise factor in determining the outcome of the game.
And you just have to wait to see who that is.
An if any different pinions and who think it's the weakest link, Dan Well, I don't.
Know about weakest link. I mean it could be the QBS, arguably, like how good is Jalen Hurt's going to be in this moment again? And in some ways, as Dylan said, it's about Hurts and Mahomes, I'd bring up Travis Kelcey because the truth is he didn't have a great season until late in the season. I say that as a guy who still reluctantly plays fantasy. He was my fantasy tight end and all season it was just not enough. And finally, in the final week of the regular fantasy
season I benched him. Big mistake. He finally had big numbers, So let's see how he does. And then you're actually right Ryan to mention the kickers. You know, it's Jake Elliott. It's Butker. We've seen this at the college game too, that the kickers make all the difference. Remember, last season's sewer Role was only won by three points. It was not by any means of drubbing for Kansas City to all those people who say Kansas City gets all the calls.
So I think it'll actually be a very close game, and I think the ratings are going to be interesting to watch. Last year we had the biggest viewership of all time, but twenty fifteen is still number two, and the household rating has actually dipped in a number of recent years. Will this be the most watched Super Bowl ever? I don't think so, but I think it'll be up there, and I think that, you know, it depends on me. Yes,
some people are sick of the Chiefs. Some people want to see history made the three peat.
Yeah, okay, if you have an informed opinion, and you don't, I mean you could it could be just be a guest and you could just say, I don't know, But do you think who would you say that is favored to win?
Well, in Vegas, it's it's the Chiefs. But yeah, but only by a point?
Right now? Dyl what what one or one and a half.
Yeah, Yeah, I'm going with the Eagles. I think the Chiefs. The Chief's luck runs.
Out till I would I'm born and raised Redskins fan. I can't root for the Eagles or want them to win. Ever, I'm also oversaturated with the Chiefs, so I don't know what I'm rooting for in this game. I look based on what I've seen in the in the Chiefs in the playoffs, I'm not I'm not going to pick against them. They that team has found a way to win over far more talented teams than themselves, and I've seen them do it for five years in a row, and I think that continues.
I'm the guy with the sun that says I just hope everybody has fun. Thank you guys for both being on Dylan. Where can everyone read your stuff and find you and read your Twitter and everything?
Bright Bart Sports. Check us out there, bright bart dot com, click the sab for sports and We're going to just go directly to bright Bart Sports and I can be followed on Twitter at the Mighty Gwin Dan.
Where can people expect from front office sports up to the Super Bowl? And where can people read your stuff?
Yeah? I hope everyone reads FOS. We have two newsletters per weekday, huge lift with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, so it's Frontofice Sports dot com. We're at FOS on Twitter and I'm at read Dan Wright.
Well, and I want to thank everyone for listening to this week's episode of A Numbers Game with Ryan Grodwski. Please listen and subscribe on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, where we get your podcast. I'll talk to you guys next week. Everyone, Thank you,