Carrie Underwood Teases Futuristic ‘Sunday Night Football’ Open

'Sunday Night Football' kicks off on September 12!

Written by Chris Parton
Carrie Underwood Teases Futuristic ‘Sunday Night Football’ Open
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - JUNE 05: Carrie Underwood performs during 2019 CMT Music Awards at The Parthenon in Centennial Park on June 05, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images for CMT)

Country superstar Carrie Underwood is getting back in the game for the upcoming NFL season, as she preps to kick off Sunday Night Football once again.

The hit maker is set to perform one of primetime TV’s biggest opening numbers — back in 2021 for her ninth straight year. But this time, she promises something extra exciting.

Teasing the weekly theme-song spot just a few weeks before the 2021-2022 NFL season begins, Underwood and company say NBC’s Sunday Night Football opener will be caulk full of special effects. Not just your run-of-the-mill green-screen stuff, though. Her performance will feature the absolute cutting edge of TV production tech.

This year, the theme song video montage was filmed at Industrial Light & Magic’s “cutting edge LED sound stage,” which means Underwood’s performance was captured using the same technology as Disney’s The Mandalorian. The futuristic result is said to be a “virtual football tailgate” — the perfect setting for Underwood’s “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night.”

“Shooting the new show open for Sunday Night Football is one of the highlights of my year,” said Underwood. “I just love the fact that we get to reinvent it every year. The team behind these shoots is incredible and it’s always a really fun day, especially this year getting to work with such amazing state-of-the-art technology.” 

Along with Underwood and the virtual tailgate, the show open will also reportedly feature user-generated cameos from some of the NFL’s biggest stars, as well as fans’ self-recorded video from tailgate parties around the country.

“We are excited about this year’s new collaboration with Carrie Underwood, which utilizes virtual production technology to generate real-time environments for Carrie’s performance, including a ‘tailgate’ to salute this game’s great fans, who have been ‘waiting all day for Sunday night’ and will be incorporated with their own user-generated tailgate videos,” said Tripp Dixon, creative director of the SNF show open. 

Meanwhile, that long “wait” for regular season football is nearly over. Carrie Underwood and Sunday Night Football return to NBC and Peacock on September 12, when the Chicago Bears take on the Los Angeles Rams. Sunday Night Football has been primetime television’s Number One program for an 10 consecutive years.

2021 NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Thurs. Sept. 9NFL Kickoff Dallas Cowboys at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Sun. Sept. 12Week 1  Chicago Bears at Los Angeles Rams
Sun. Sept. 19Week 2  Kansas City Chiefs at Baltimore Ravens
Sun. Sept. 26Week 3  Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers
Sun. Oct. 3Week 4Tampa Bay Bucs at New England Patriots
*Sun. Oct. 10Week 5  Buffalo Bills at Kansas City Chiefs
*Sun. Oct. 17Week 6Seattle Seahawks at Pittsburgh Steelers
*Sun. Oct. 24Week 7Indianapolis Colts at San Francisco 49ers
*Sun. Oct. 31Week 8Dallas Cowboys at Minnesota Vikings
*Sun. Nov. 7Week 9Tennessee Titans at Los Angeles Rams
*Sun. Nov. 14Week 10Kansas City Chiefs at Las Vegas Raiders
*Sun. Nov. 21Week 11 Pittsburgh Steelers at Los Angeles Chargers
**Thurs. Nov. 25Week 12Buffalo Bills at New Orleans Saints
*Sun. Nov. 28Week 12Cleveland Browns at Baltimore Ravens
*Sun. Dec. 5Week 13San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks
*Sun. Dec. 12Week 14Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers
*Sun. Dec. 19Week 15New Orleans Saints at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
*Sun. Dec. 26Week 16Washington Football Team at Dallas Cowboys
*Sun. Jan. 2Week 17Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers
*Sun. Jan. 9Week 18TBD

*Flex Week

** Thanksgiving Night Game