A TMZ poll meant to stir up Super Bowl halftime controversy appears to have backfired—handing Kid Rock a commanding lead over the NFL’s official Bad Bunny show.
Quick Take
- TMZ’s X poll comparing Bad Bunny’s official Super Bowl LX halftime to Kid Rock’s TPUSA “All-American Halftime Show” showed Kid Rock leading with 66.9% in an early snapshot.
- The alternative show was streamed online while the NFL performance played inside Levi’s Stadium, turning a music debate into a cultural proxy fight.
- President Trump publicly blasted the official halftime show on Truth Social, calling it “terrible” and an “affront” to America.
- Reactions varied by platform, with X posts leaning pro–Kid Rock while Instagram comments appeared more mixed, underscoring how online audiences shape narratives.
TMZ’s poll turns a halftime debate into a political litmus test
TMZ framed the Super Bowl LX halftime conversation as a head-to-head matchup: Bad Bunny’s official NFL performance at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara versus Kid Rock’s rival set at a Turning Point USA event marketed as an “All-American Halftime Show.” In a February 9 snapshot reported by a news aggregation, Kid Rock led with 66.9% of more than 256,000 votes, with the poll drawing major attention online.
The poll’s structure matters because it wasn’t simply “did you like the halftime show.” It asked viewers to pick between two different venues, two different audiences, and two different cultural messages—one produced by the NFL entertainment machine, the other built as a conservative counter-program. That setup almost guaranteed that partisan energy would pour into the vote totals, making the poll a measurement of online mobilization as much as musical preference.
Two stages, two audiences, and one night of competing narratives
Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican reggaeton superstar, performed the official halftime set during the game, continuing the NFL’s recent trend of headline pop spectacles built for global reach. At the same time, Kid Rock—long associated with pro-Trump politics—headlined TPUSA’s alternative event, which was streamed online. TMZ later highlighted video of the TPUSA performance as a “rival” show, reinforcing the idea that this was about more than entertainment.
The available reporting also suggests the online reaction split by platform. The same snapshot describing Kid Rock’s lead noted that X responses featured praise like “crushed it” and “no competition,” while Instagram comments appeared more divided, with some users defending Bad Bunny and others saying Kid Rock “lost” them. That contrast is a reminder that polls and comment sections can reflect the ideology of a platform’s active user base as much as the country at large.
Trump’s criticism raises the cultural stakes for 2026
President Trump’s comments added political gravity to what might otherwise have been a standard halftime argument. After the performances, Trump posted on Truth Social criticizing the official show in harsh terms, calling it “absolutely terrible,” an “affront to the Greatness of America,” and a “slap in the face to our Country.” The post specifically attacked elements of the performance such as language and dancing, and it quickly became part of the broader debate.
Trump’s earlier criticism of the Super Bowl’s entertainment choices also helped set the table for conflict. According to the research summary, he voiced objections in a January interview and then amplified those frustrations on game night. For conservatives who have watched major institutions lean into divisive cultural signaling, the backlash isn’t really about one artist; it’s about a feeling that elite tastemakers use massive stages to push messages ordinary Americans didn’t ask for.
What the poll can—and can’t—prove about America’s mood
The strongest verified facts here are limited but clear: there were two high-profile halftime events, TMZ ran an X poll comparing them, and one widely reported snapshot showed Kid Rock with a large lead at a high vote count. What the poll cannot prove, based on the available sourcing, is how representative the results are of the full Super Bowl audience. Online polls can be swarmed, and vote totals can shift as the story spreads.
Still, the episode illustrates a real dynamic in 2026: alternative media ecosystems can compete with legacy platforms in real time. TPUSA positioned its show as a deliberate contrast to the NFL’s choice, and the immediate online engagement suggests the counter-programming strategy resonated with a sizable audience. For the NFL and its partners, the takeaway may be that culture-war flashpoints now follow entertainment decisions faster than traditional PR can manage.
That TMZ Poll Comparing Bad Bunny and Kid Rock Performances May Not Have Gone As They Anticipatedhttps://t.co/BqfBIjmV2J
— RedState (@RedState) February 9, 2026
Another limitation is that the research does not include direct statements from the NFL, Roc Nation, or Bad Bunny responding to the controversy. Without those on-record reactions, the story remains primarily about audience response, platform amplification, and political commentary rather than a documented institutional decision to change course. Even so, the scale of attention around the poll shows how quickly “who won halftime” can become a broader fight over national identity and values.
