NBC went country for its Sunday Night Baseball opening theme song, tapping the Zac Brown Band to star in its new open, which debuted on Sunday night on NBC and Peacock ahead of the Guardians-Braves game and will be used for every Sunday night game through the end of the season.
This isn’t the first time NBC has brought in a celebrity performer for one of its Sunday night sports properties, which now run year-round. The Zac Brown Brand joins Carrie Underwood, who performs the opening number for Sunday Night Football, and Lenny Kravitz, who did the same for NBC’s return to NBA coverage.
However, Sunday’s premiere drew mixed reviews from viewers, to say the least.
MarinersMuse, a Seattle Mariners X account associated with Sleeper, wondered if generative AI wrote the lyrics.
“why are we being force fed ZBB on every [expletive] sports related event? it didn’t match the vibe of March Madness and this surely doesn’t fit the vibe of bringing back Sunday Night Baseball on NBC,” one viewer posted.
Others were just appreciative that NBC was taking its Sunday Night Baseball productions seriously after taking over the rights package from ESPN.
The response to the new number may not be as enthusiastic as either NBC or the Zac Brown Band was hoping for, but if the network can consistently produce quality broadcasts after not having aired an MLB game in primetime since 2000, the number might just attain the recognizability of Underwood’s Sunday Night Football jingle.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.