Sunday Night Football returned on September 10 for its first game of the season, which meant Carrie Underwood was also back to perform the program’s theme song, “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night.”
The new opening montage featured footage of Underwood performing interspersed with clips of NFL players, which will change each week based on the two teams playing on their respective Sunday nights. The clip garnered plenty of positive reactions on social media and in real life, including a compliment from Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Football Players And Travis Kelce’s Reaction
“I have had players tell me that they love the Sunday Night Football song and it gets them hyped up,” Underwood told Access Hollywood in a recent interview, sharing that her latest interaction was with Kelce at the CMT Music Awards in Austin in April.
“He came up and he was like, ‘Thank you for getting me ready for the game,’” Underwood recalled, laughing, “I’m like, ‘Okay, sure, anytime.’”
Carrie Underwood’s 11th Season Performing Sunday Night Football Opening
This is Underwood’s 11th consecutive season performing the Sunday Night Football theme song and starring in its show open.
Underwood told Access Hollywood that she would choose “energizing” as one word to describe the 2023 show open. “There’s a lot of energy that is going into it, and hopefully everybody feels that,” she said, adding that she and the creative team behind the opening “definitely try to raise the bar and be bigger and better than we were the year prior.”
The Grammy winner, who hails from Oklahoma, explained that she grew up watching Sunday Night Football and generally loves the sport, “so it’s so much fun to kind of play a small part in it and hopefully get everybody pumped up for the game.”

Having been a part of the program for over a decade, Underwood shared that “the challenge at this point is just figuring out how to make everything look different, feel different, make the wardrobe look different.”
New Metallic Bodysuit Outfit
To switch things up for her latest theme song performance, Carrie Underwood chose a silver and gray asymmetrical bodysuit with mesh paneling, sequins and beaded fringe.
“I feel like we’ve done every color, we’ve done shorts, we’ve done dresses and everything in between, so we were just kind of trying to figure out what we could do that would look and feel different,” she said, “and kind of went with this onesie, one leg asymmetrical thing, creation. It’s a lot of fun.”
This year’s open features a concert performance interspersed with augmented reality highlights displayed across a halo scoreboard, and Underwood performed her portion from The Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas, home of her ongoing residency, REFLECTION.

“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 in a statement in August. “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!”
“We’re thrilled to work with Carrie to capture a new vision for this season’s show open,” added Tripp Dixon, creative director of the SNF show open for each of the past 11 years. “It sets the tone for the broadcast and pays tribute to the teams, star players and fans in a fun and dynamic way.”
Watch Carrie Underwood’s 2023 Sunday Night Football Opening HERE.