After a very successful 1st football season for the New Heights podcast finished with hosts Jason and Travis Kelce going head-to-head in the Super Bowl, the brothers’ podcast had an even bigger ascent during the 2023/24 NFL season. How did the Kelce brothers top the Kelce Bowl? With another Super Bowl run, this time featuring Taylor Swift.
The New Heights podcast (produced by Wave Sports+Entertainment) was where Travis Kelce first mentioned Taylor Swift, in an episode with over 545 thousand views were the Chiefs tight end said he tried to give her his phone number via friendship bracelet after attending her concert in Kansas City. Travis Kelce became an even bigger star when Taylor Swift began coming to Kansas City Chiefs in September. Immediately, Taylor Swift fans started tunining into the NFL…and Travis Kelce’s podcast.
Combining football fans with Taylor Swift fans, New Heights hit new heights this NFL season. Momentum from last year’s Super Bowl, Taylor Swift’s rookie season and a second consecutive Super Bowl for Travis Kelce created the perfect storm for a huge season on social.
new heights on youtube
Just like last year, the New Heights was consistently a top-ranked podcast for sports and overall on major podcast services like Spotify and Apple Podcasts, reaching the #1 spot several times throughout the season. Outside of podcasts apps, they also air full video episodes weekly on their YouTube channel.
Analyzing this performance of this year’s episodes compared to last year, there was a significant spike in viewership with both NFL fans and Taylor Swift fans now listening. During the 2023/24 season 28 episodes earned over 54 million views, up 2x from the 27 episodes posted during same time frame last season.
On average season, New Heights earned more than 1.92 million views per episode, up 98% or nearly double last year’s average of 973 thousand views per episode. Taylor Swift fans were definitely a part of this boosted viewership, but the #1 episode this was their interview with Jason Kelce’s wife Kylie, which has over 7.7 million views. The #2 episode was their Super Bowl recap with 3.63 million views.
New Heights Social media
As with most popular podcasts, clips and highlights from the Kelce brothers show were shared across social media throughout the season, and increased attention on the podcast led to huge growth for the New Heights Instagram and X/Twitter accounts.
The New Heights X/Twitter had massive season-over-season growth for major metrics, and boosted it’s following 2.59x with 247 thousand new followers, but the New Heights Instagram had even more follower growth. The Instagram gained 1.88 million new followers since September, increasing their total 4.13x from to hit 2.49 million by the end of February.
The biggest moment of the season on New Heights social media? Jason Kelce at the AFC Championship game. Four of the top five X posts and the #1 Instagram post came from that game, where Jason Kelce joined Taylor Swift in the suite to cheer on his brother.
Put it in the louvre pic.twitter.com/9fEunpHVoi
— New Heights (@newheightshow) January 22, 2024
Sometimes stories just write themselves, and this year the New Heights podcast was the perfect compliment to both the NFL hype around Taylor Swift as well as the ups and downs of a season for teams like the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. It seems impossible that the Kelce brothers can top this season, but they probably thought the Kelce Bowl would be hard to beat too.
