NBC'S BIG "RETURN"

On what was billed as the biggest regular-season NFL game of all time, NBC's Sunday Night Football played up Tom Brady's dramatic return to Foxborough to face his former team, the New England Patriots, and coach of 20 years, Bill Belichick. Numbers show a 62% boost in viewership for "The Return" on SNF, making the broadcast the second biggest of the year behind only the Super Bowl, and the second biggest Sunday Night Football game ever.

Promoted all week, NBC positioned its cut of a mini Brady/Patriots/Belichick soap opera—soundtracked by Adele's "Hello"—at the introduction to the main event. On Monday morning, Adele updated her website and socials accordingly and "Hello" moved into the iTunes Top 30.

The major NFL/NBC Adele look throughout the week, along with Taylor Swift's moving up the release of Red (Taylor's Version) by a week, to 11/12, has the biz and fans chattering that a superstar release on 11/19 is more than mere speculation.

NBC's Sunday halftime show also featured a clip of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg talking about their just-announced Super Bowl Halftime Show, which will also welcome Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar, injecting the ol' National Broadcasting Corporation with the cool only these icons can provide.

Sports fans have more drama lined up this week with one-game playoffs on Tuesday and Wednesday for Yankees/Red Sox and Dodgers/Cardinals. TBS should get solid ratings for both nights as two of the storied franchises will be sent home for the winter.

Over in the U.K., the BBC is tracking potential Adele action: “The number "30" was projected onto several buildings around the world over the weekend. Fans are predicting this will be the name of her fourth album—after 19, 21 and 25. The mysterious projections have been spotted on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Colosseum in Rome, Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, Amsterdam's Nemo Museum and New York's Empire State Building. The logo has also reportedly appeared in Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Ireland, Italy, Canada, Malaysia, South Korea and the UK.”

Now if you'll excuse us, we're going to attempt to analyze Adele's new color scheme.

NBC used @Adele’s ‘Hello’ ahead of @TomBrady’s return to Foxboro for the first time with @Buccaneers! 🏈 pic.twitter.com/fpedzZz3Iw

— UPROXX Music (@uproxxmusic) October 4, 2021

😂😂😂 https://t.co/SeM12zFOcm

— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) October 4, 2021