NEED TO KNOW
- The New Heights team opened up about the secrecy behind Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Aug. 13 appearance on the podcast
- Intern Brandon Borders shared the intense phone call Travis Kelce gave him, revealing that the pop star would be a guest
- Brandon went on to explain how he managed to keep the news a secret, even from members of his own team
Intern Brandon didn’t drop the baby!
On the Wednesday, Aug. 27 episode of New Heights, Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce discussed how Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Aug. 13 appearance on the podcast came to be, including some of the secretive maneuvers their production team had to pull to make it happen.
Brandon Borders, who is frequently referred to as “Intern Brandon” on the show, detailed one stress-inducing phone call he received from the Kansas City Chiefs tight end ahead of his future fiancée’s much-discussed appearance.
“I didn’t drop the baby. I didn’t. Man, this is the longest I was ever trusted with a secret,” Brandon admitted on New Heights. “The phone call I got from Travis scared the s— out of me.”
Travis admitted of the moment, “I was terrified, myself. I thought I was writing my death sentence f—— talking to you.”
According to Brandon, the brief but informative call told him that Swift was going to appear on the podcast, but very little else.
“Travis called me one day and gave me, like, a 30-second ‘Hey. So she’s gonna do it. Somebody will call you with details. Bye,’ ” Brandon recalled. “And that was that was the only f—— thing I got. ‘So you don’t know anything. Also Jason doesn’t know, don’t tell him.’ ”
Travis got in on the moment claiming to add, “Also, I didn’t talk to you about anything. You don’t even know.”
“This message will explode in 15 seconds,” Jason joked, with Brandon adding, “Your phone is being tracked. They will know if you said something.”
Brandon also kept the news from Jake Chatzky, a.k.a. “Jets Jake,” who is the podcast’s lead social producer. But keeping the secret proved to be a challenge.
“Brandon trusted me for all of 48 hours,” Jake quipped. “He was like, ‘Yeah, dude. I need your help setting up Travis’ new camera in Kansas City.’ And then we got in the car, and Brandon got a text by someone where I was like, ‘Oh, f—. We’re doing that. Oh, she doesn’t work for Pat Mahomes.’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ve been lying to you. Yeah. We’re not talking to Pat today, buddy. Sorry.’ ”
Brandon noted that keeping the secret became harder with Jake due to his inquisitive nature.
“Jake is very difficult to get him to go places when you don’t explain what he’s doing. He asks a lot of questions,” Brandon said. “I’m just like, ‘Your ticket for Kansas City is purchased, get on the plane and shut the f— up.’ He’s like, ‘What are we gonna do there? Are we gonna have dinner?’ And I’m like, just like, ‘Get in the f—— plane, Jake.’ ”
Jake acknowledged some of the online stress was because the New Heights team were the ones to announce Swift’s 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, which the other guys admitted was a valid concern.
“It felt kind of ridiculous that we were being trusted with this responsibility,” Jake said. “And I was just very much in do not f— this up mode, do not drop the baby with Taylor’s album announcement, which was a very big deal thing.”
Agreeing, Jason joked of the team, “A bunch of, like, dickheads that don’t know what the hell we’re doing. We’ve never done or handled anything to this degree.”
However, Intern Brandon said that Swift’s team put him at ease throughout the stressful process.
“Shout out to Taylor,” he said. “Taylor’s team took good care of me. So they made sure I didn’t freak out halfway through. It was good.”
New Heights returned for their fourth season on Wednesday, one day after Swift and Travis announced their engagement. Travis popped the question in a beautiful rose-covered garden, with the couple sharing photos online.
Jason gave the pair a special shoutout at the beginning of the episode, which was taped without Travis.
“Gigantic piece of ‘New News’ that just hit the waves,” Jason shared during the episode, referencing a popular segment from the podcast. “We did record this podcast on Monday, which was Travis’ one day off. So, he is not here to address this himself, but we felt it necessary as a team here at New Heights to get together and send Travis and Taylor a giant congratulations for being engaged! The proposal heard ‘round the world.”
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