Carrie Underwood will take over ‘Sunday Night Football’ theme

Carrie Underwood will be the new voice of NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” theme song, “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night,” the network announced on Tuesday.

Underwood’s version of the song will make its debut before the first Sunday night broadcast of the 2013 season on Sept. 8, a game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants.

The one-time “American Idol” champion and six-time Grammy Award winner replaces Faith Hill, whose version of the song had opened “Sunday Night Football” since 2007.

The song made its debut on “Sunday Night Football” in 2006, sung by Pink that year, and is a reworked version of Joan Jett’s “I Hate Myself for Loving You” with new lyrics.

In a conference call with reporters, Underwood said she’d be giving her own spin to the tune, which she expected to record soon. “It’s the same song, same lyrics, but it’s going to be with my flair,” she said.

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On the same call, “Sunday Night Football” producer Fred Gaudelli revealed that Underwood had been one of his original picks when NBC began airing the program in 2006, but he was unable to secure her. Two singers later, Underwood is singing the intro.

“She’s the only person I spoke to about this,” he said.

Last season, “Sunday Night Football” was the highest-rated program on prime-time television.

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