NBC announced that it will be filming a new opening for Sunday Night Football. The talent will be familiar, with country star Carrie Underwood returning. The setting won’t be.
For the first time ever, an NFL stadium will serve as the set for the open. Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium will host Underwood, the NBC crew, and several players for filming.
“From the unique roof to the striking halo, with the perspective it offers relative to the action on the field, Mercedes-Benz Stadium has a number of features which will add to our creative execution of the show open,” SNF executive producer Fred Gaudelli said in a press release.
While the NBC press release mentions nothing of a controversy, it was issued a day after Reuters reported that a copyright infringement lawsuit has been filed against the NFL, NBC, and Underwood.
Singer Heidi Merrill alleges she pitched a song called “Game On” to Underwood’s producer Mark Bright as a potential theme for Sunday Night Football. The lawsuit claims that Bright rejected the song in a meeting that took place in August of 2017. Merill uploaded her song to YouTube in March of that same year.
Underwood’s song, which is also called “Game On”, is “substantially – even strikingly – similar, if not identical” to Merrill’s in a number of ways according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed in a Manhattan court. In all, nine defendants are named.
