Bad Bunny was not replaced as the Super Bowl LX halftime headliner, despite criticism and boycott rhetoric after his selection. The NFL said it was not reconsidering the choice; later audience figures show how many people watched, not how many considered or carried out a boycott.
Why Bad Bunny’s selection drew criticism
The NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation announced Bad Bunny as the headliner of the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show. NFL coverage describes his music as Latin trap and reggaeton. The announcement scheduled the game for February 8, 2026, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, and said it would air on NBC. NFL’s announcement described him as a three-time Grammy Award winner; its coverage of the performer notes those genres.
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The selection prompted criticism, including calls to boycott. But public posts and scattered statements do not amount to a representative count of NFL fans, and the available reporting does not establish how widely those calls were supported.
Did the NFL replace Bad Bunny?
No. On October 22, 2025, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league was not considering dropping Bad Bunny as headliner. The Associated Press reported his remarks at a news conference after the league’s annual fall owners meeting.
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Goodell said: “It’s carefully thought through. I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback or criticism. It’s pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching.” The comment addressed the selection and criticism around it; it was not a measure of how many people supported a boycott. Associated Press coverage
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Did NFL fans actually boycott Super Bowl LX?
The available reporting does not establish how many people acted on boycott threats. No attributable statistic measuring boycott intent or participation is provided, and the sources do not show whether the calls changed viewing. It is therefore accurate to say the choice drew criticism and boycott rhetoric—not that a confirmed mass boycott took place or affected the audience.
What the audience figures can—and cannot—tell us
Nielsen’s updated report put the Super Bowl LX average audience at 125.6 million viewers. It reported an average of 128.2 million for the halftime show, measured between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Nielsen noted that its figures were updated after an initial report on February 10, 2026. Nielsen’s updated report
Those are audience measurements, not boycott counts. They do not reveal how many people considered skipping the game, whether anyone stayed away specifically because of the halftime selection, or what the audience would have been without the controversy. Nor should the totals be used to claim a year-over-year effect without checking that the audience measures, coverage and measurement windows are comparable.
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