As NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” kicks off on September 7, 2025, it will begin for the 13th year in a row with country superstar Carrie Underwood singing the latest version of the theme song, “Waiting All Day For Sunday Night.”
The former “American Idol” winner and current judge says it’s the thing she’s most recognized for, according to the New York Times, which went behind the scenes of the June recording session, during which Underwood sang 80 versions of the iconic song, set to the tune of Joan Jett’s 1988 hit “I Hate Myself For Loving You.”
Carrie Underwood Recorded the 2025 ‘Sunday Night Football’ Theme in June
The “Sunday Night Football” theme song changes slightly with every new NFL matchup across 18 Sundays, according to the New York Times. But because the primetime lineup can change later in the year, depending on which games are likely to draw the most viewers, producers have to be prepared for the intro song to pump people up for a variety of possible team and player matchups.
That means Underwood recorded dozens of permutations of the rock song, standing in a dark Nashville studio in her bare feet, the outlet reported. For the September 7 game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills, NBC producer Rob Hyland told the New York Times they wanted Underwood’s lyrics to focus on superstar quarterbacks Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen.
Underwood was given multiple different lines to record, with the freedom to change words here and there if the lyrics don’t feel quite right.
“It’s just all about flow and the rest of the sentence,” Underwood told the New York Times. “You get in there and sometimes you’ll sing something and it sounded clunky, and then somebody will be like, ‘Why don’t you switch the names or switch the order?'”
Carrie Underwood’s Anthem Has a New Sound in 2025
2025 marks the 20th season of “Sunday Night Football” on NBC. Tripp Dixon, creative director for the opener, told NBC Insider they wanted to give Underwood’s theme song a special sound for the occasion.
Dixon said, “For the 20th season of SNF, we wanted to set the tone for the night by reimagining the anthem sound in a way that plays to Carrie’s powerhouse vocals, while visually creating a seamless blend of stylized shots and behind-the-scenes moments evoking the national roadshow that is Sunday Night Football, week after week in the fall.”
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