Why Travis Kelce Turned Down Major Reality TV Offer

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Travis Kelce is “way over that reality s**t.”

After the success of Netflix’s reality series Quarterback in 2023, Kelce, 34, was approached to be a part of the follow-up series, Receiver, which is set to premiere July 10. Speaking with the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast in June 2024, the Kansas City Chiefs player admitted, “I’d rather just play ball, man. I’m already doing enough with the podcast and everything.”

The rising star, who shot even further into fame thanks to his high-profile relationship with Taylor Swift, was referring to the show he does with his brother, former Eagles player Jason Kelce, called New Heights. The podcast has performed well on Spotify and Apple podcast charts since 2022, reaching even greater success thanks to Travis’s connection to Swift. The brothers are said to be shopping the podcast around for a deal that could net them a paycheck in the eight figures, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

That’s not the only reason Travis turned down the offer though, as the star also joked, “I’m out on that s**t.” Back in 2016, Travis was the star of E! reality dating series Catching Kelce, which saw the NFL player dating 50 women. Looking back, Travis wouldn’t necessarily say that he regrets doing it, but diplomatically called it a “learning experience.” Speaking with The Pivot podcast in January 2023, he admitted the lesson was that he will “never” go back into reality TV.

He called the experience “extremely awkward,” because he didn’t have a lot of control over what they did on the show. “I don’t think I got portrayed as myself… I was asked to do more than what I wanted to. That doesn’t always work out great,” he told the hosts. Though he found the concept of dating one woman from each state “kind of intriguing,” he initially rejected the offer.

“I told them no for probably a good three months,” Travis told the podcast. In the end, he only changed his mind because he was going through his NFL checks too quickly. “I was so bad financially my first couple years,” he said, adding, “There were times in the off season I was avoiding the rent lady. It was that bad.”

He did, however, make an appearance in his brother’s 2023 Prime Video documentary, Kelce. The documentary followed Jason as he played one final season in the NFL before retiring. Travis praised his brother for doing it “the right way,” but still didn’t think the idea was for him. “That was so him and I just don’t know if I have the desire to do anything like that,” Travis said on The Pivot podcast. “I’d rather just focus on ball, baby.”