Carrie Underwood Teases Changes to ‘Sunday Night Football’ Opening for 2023

Carrie Underwood is back for another NFL season. On Tuesday, NBC Sports announced that the eight-time Grammy Award winner will star in the show open for NBC’s Sunday Night Football for the 11th consecutive season beginning Sept. 10 on NBC and Peacock. She performed an updated rendition of “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” from The Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas and also teased a change for the new year. 

“Once again, the incredible Sunday Night Football team came up with a fresh, exciting visual concept that really gave us a chance to play,” Underwood said, revealing that the show open was shot in a new place. “I loved shooting the show open again this year at our home away from home, The Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas, and can’t wait for another season of football!”  

NFL fans will see Underwood when the Dallas Cowboys take on the New York Giants on Sept. 10. However Sunday Night Football officially begins on Thursday, Sept. 7, when the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Detriot Lions. With the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl in February, the NFL has them and the Lions kicking off the season a few days before the rest of the teams. 

“I told Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, I was like, ‘Man, if we could pull off the Thursday night game, the opening of the season, that would be unbelievable.’ Just because you get good work in, you play that game, you get 10 days to recover, gameplan and get ready for the next opponent,” Lions head coach Campbell said to Good Morning Football in May, per Chiefs Wire. “I’ll be danged if we didn’t draw it — not only that, but we get Kansas City, the heavyweight champ. So, we’re excited, the staff’s excited, I know our players are excited.”

NBC has been airing Sunday Night Football since 2006. In 2021, NBCUniversal and NFL agreed to an 11-year contract extension, meaning NBC will be the home of Sunday Night Football through the 2033 season. “We are excited to expand upon our relationship with the NFL, which is the most powerful content in sports and entertainment,” Pete Bevacqua, Chairman, NBC Sports Group, said in a statement at the time.  “Sunday Night Football has been television’s most-watched primetime show for a decade, and we look forward to continuing our best-in-class presentation of SNF, Super Bowls, and playoff games for many years to come, while also broadening our audience with Peacock becoming the live streaming home for all NBC NFL games.”