In response to the MAGA meltdown over Bad Bunny’s selection as the Super Bowl halftime performer in September, Turning Point announced that it would hold an alternative show featuring Kid Rock. Multiple Trump administration figures, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and J.D. Vance, hyped up the counterprogramming. So after all that buildup, how many people watched the Turning Point halftime show? Did it actually perform well?

Much like the Melania movie’s box-office numbers, that’s a matter of interpretation.

Naturally, Turning Point was quick to declare the concert a “massive success.” Sunday night on Brian Kilmeade’s Fox News show One Nation, Turning Point spokesperson Andrew Kolvet said at least 20 million people tuned in to its “All-American Halftime Show.” He said TPUSA arrived at that number by “adding up all of Rumble and all of our partners just on the social side.”

Kolvet noted that “YouTube’s numbers keep updating, keep updating” (as they tend to do). “And we don’t know how many people were gathered together,” he added. “Three, four, ten in a room watching together. So we’re going to try to put a final number on that when we can.” (It’s unclear if the fact that people tend to watch major sporting events in groups will actually factor into TPUSA’s final estimate.)

Twenty million–plus viewers as of late Sunday night certainly isn’t bad for a show tailored to people who think it makes sense to counterprogram U.S. citizen Bad Bunny with an “All-American Halftime Show.” But the figure seems a bit less impressive when you consider that nearly 13 million people watched last year’s Puppy Bowl across several cable networks and streamers. And the vice president of the United States wasn’t hyping the showdown between Team Ruff and Team Fluff.

As is often the case in our fractured media environment, it’s hard to do an apples-to-apples comparison here. By midday Monday, Bad Bunny’s halftime show had 20 million views on the NFL’s YouTube channel, and the TPUSA alternative had 19.6 million views on YouTube alone. We probably won’t have a Nielsen rating for the Super Bowl until Tuesday, but CBS News reported that “early figures” show Bad Bunny’s performance “was the most-watched halftime performance of all time with more than 135 million viewers.”

Since the TPUSA show only aired on a smattering of right-leaning broadcast networks, like OAN News and Trinity Broadcasting Network, there’s no way it’ll come anywhere close to that. It’s safe to say Bad Bunny’s celebration of Latin heritage and call for unity on Sunday night got at least 100 million more viewers.

Nevertheless, TPUSA is already planning a sequel.

“Because of the success that has just blown our minds, we’re going to commit to doing this again next year,” Kolvet told Fox News. “We’re gonna do another halftime show for the country next year.” You’re welcome, America!

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