Country superstar Carrie Underwood has entered her 13th season as the face and voice of Sunday Night Football on NBC, continuing her long-running tradition with the energetic theme song “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night.” The American Idol winner first joined the show in 2013, becoming a staple of the NFL’s primetime broadcast and setting the tone for fans every week.
How Did Carrie Underwood’s Sunday Night Football Journey Begin?
Carrie began performing the Sunday Night Football theme in 2013 and later introduced “Oh, Sunday Night” in 2016 — a reimagined version of her hit duet with Miranda Lambert, “Somethin’ Bad.”
In 2018, she debuted a new theme, “Game On,” which she co-wrote with Brett James and Chris DeStefano. However, following a copyright lawsuit, the NFL reverted to the fan-favourite “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” adapted from Joan Jett’s 1988 classic “I Hate Myself for Loving You.”
Where Is the Theme Video Filmed?
This season’s opening video was filmed at The Resorts World Theater in Las Vegas, where Carrie’s REFLECTION residency took place.
As always, each week’s video looks slightly different — with visuals and lyrics adjusted to reflect the location and teams playing that Sunday.
This often leads fans to ask: How does Carrie Underwood record a new intro every single week?
How Does Carrie Underwood Record the Weekly Intros?
Carrie recently explained the process during an interview on Highway Mornings with Cody Alan on SiriusXM’s The Highway.
“Well it’s all spread out. So we’ll go in and we’ll record the base track first. And we always try to kind of refresh it a little bit every year. So we’ll work on it and it’s the same basic, the same bones, but we always try to do little things that are a little bit different.
And then we’ll go and film it, and that usually takes a day of my time. They go around and they, you know, might depending on what the theme of it is, they might talk to other players or film other intros of other players and go to different cities and stuff like that.
And then they cut it all together and then I go back into the studio and I will record like every combination because they’ll know what their lineup is gonna be for Sunday nights.”
Carrie records all 18 regular season intros in advance since the Sunday Night Football schedule is fixed before the season begins.
What Happens During the Playoffs?
The playoffs are less predictable — but Carrie still manages to stay ahead.
“But then once we get into playoffs, it’s like we don’t know what’s gonna happen. So first I do all of the Sunday night schedule and then I do any combination of anybody that could ever possibly play each other in the playoffs,” she said.
That means recording multiple versions for potential matchups — a huge amount of work behind the scenes.
How Much Does Carrie Underwood Earn for Sunday Night Football?
Despite online rumours suggesting she earns $1 million per week, Carrie has previously clarified that her work on Sunday Night Football is actually “pretty pro bono.”
Even without a massive paycheque, she continues to take pride in her role as the voice of Sunday nights — bringing excitement and energy to millions of households across America year after year.
