How did the Super Bowl halftime show become a major event?

For roughly the first two decades, halftime was treated as a break rather than an attraction. The change came in the early 1990s, when the NFL began booking major contemporary artists to hold viewers who might otherwise leave. Michael Jackson's 1993 performance is widely cited as the turning point, and later stars, big advertising rates and a few headline-making incidents built on it. [1] [2]

Early shows were modest. Fast Company describes the first 20-plus Super Bowls as having a halftime that was a nonevent at best, and the game routinely lost much of its audience during it, which the NFL accepted as normal. The New York Times lists the acts the league used for years as Up With People, Pete Fountain, Carol Channing, marching bands, the Rockettes, Elvis Presto and Disney characters. [3] [1]

The Conversation notes an early move toward production values in 1977, when the league contracted with Disney for a show called "It's a Small World." The BBC says New Kids on the Block were the first contemporary pop act to play the Super Bowl, a few years before Jackson, though the set was not memorable. [4] [5]

Fast Company recounts, with the caveat that it is how the story goes as legend, that Fox president Jamie Kellner proposed in 1991 to counterprogram against the halftime show, which he saw as television's most predictable dead zone. The CSMonitor says it finally dawned on the NFL in the 1990s that halftime was a massive missed opportunity. [3] [2]

Michael Jackson's three-song medley in 1993 followed. The New York Times reports that it lifted NBC's halftime rating above that of the game action before it, and that the league concluded it needed big-name, broad-appeal artists to keep viewers from straying. The CSMonitor says the show's history divides into before and after Jackson. [1] [2]

Megastars began to covet the slot. An NFL executive called it a bucket list item for even the biggest acts, and the BBC quotes a producer saying the music drew in people who normally would not watch football, so the game and the show became two attractions. The BBC also points to the cost of airtime, with advertisers paying millions for slots, which makes every second a bid to keep viewers watching. [2] [5]

Controversy added attention. Janet Jackson's 2004 wardrobe malfunction became a bigger talking point than the game, and the NFL has kept strict control since, turning to rock acts such as The Who, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen. The Conversation argues the league emphasized spectacle partly because it could not guarantee competitive games, and reports a $10 million production budget for Lady Gaga's show. That motive is one outlet's interpretation rather than an established fact. [5] [2] [4]