The Truth on the Viral Rumor About Carrie Underwood's 'SNF' Paycheck

With the start of another NFL season came the reemergence of a viral rumor that had viewers at home asking: Carrie Underwood makes how much for appearing on Sunday Night Football?

Underwood, 42, famously performs a taped version of “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” before every Sunday Night Football broadcast on NBC, including the 2025-2026 season opener between the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, Friday 5. 

As football fans let Underwood’s bombastic vocals wash over them, a pesky rumor about the country star’s Sunday Night Football pay day began recirculating on social media. 

A post from the popular account MLFootball, which boasts over 360,000 followers on X, read: “🚨BREAKING: Carrie Underwood is paid ONE MILLION DOLLARS EACH WEEK to do the Sunday Night Football theme song. She films all of it in one day & got paid 18 million dollars for that, per reports.”

The post, which was originally made in October 2024, has over 35,000 likes and began circulating again during the Bills and Ravens game on Sunday. 

However, Underwood was previously forced to shoot down the rumor about her massive paycheck during an interview with Howard Stern in May 2023. 

During the interview, Stern, 71, said, “The money ain’t bad. Is it true it’s 18 million dollars a year?”

“For me?! No!” Underwood responded. “It’s pretty pro-bono.”

The singer added, “I wish! That’d be great.”

Underwood’s actual salary for the Sunday Night Football gig remains a mystery. 

When Sunday Night Football first launched in 2006, Underwood was offered the job to perform the theme song — but declined. 

“At that time in my life there was so much going on,” Underwood told Yahoo Entertainment in September 2024. “It wasn’t the right time.”

The offer from NBC came right on the heels of Underwood winning season 4 of American Idol in May 2005. Her debut album, Some Hearts, was released in November of that year. 

Pink took the Sunday Night Football job for one season before handing it over to Faith Hill, who performed the theme song for six years. 

Underwood was offered the role a second time after Hill, 57, announced her departure, and the timing was right. 

“I feel like they do such a great job year after year of reinventing and reinvigorating the open,” Underwood told Yahoo in 2024. “People know it’s very comforting to see the open and kind of have a general idea of what it’s gonna feel like. But the way that they go in every year and do what they do to keep it fresh is really cool.”