Note that there were quotes from him yesterday or this morning that didn't expect the # to get above 20M!
Just look at who was in the crowds of the public viewings of the game. You could see many teenage boys. And they were not afraid to debate the relative merits of the skills of the players. This is a major phenomenon.
Heck, when I was growing up, the only men's soccer on TV was "Soccer Made in Germany" on PBS - once a week a Bundesliga game was condensed to 60 minutes, with the legendary Toby Charles doing the play by play. Now, the US women's team plays in prime time on network TV - and twice has outdrawn every men's soccer game in this country's history.
This should give a better sense of the total numbers the game is working against (includes online viewers): 2014 WC Final: 28.3 million 2014 US-Portugal WC group stage match: 25.2 million The numbers we are hearing now appear to be Fox-only. Telemundo wasn't giving much of a boost to the total numbers in this tournament, but we shall see.
Sets a record for "metered households," but only as it pertains to a "single network." http://www.foxsports.com/presspass/...-cup-championship-match-sets-metered-market-h
Better than expected Telemundo numbers: USA-Japan had 1.27 mil viewers on Telemundo. Combined with FOX # it sets a record for most-watched game ever on US TV http://t.co/Hy0AHYtN9G— World Soccer Talk (@worldsoccertalk) July 6, 2015 According to reports, the viewing figure for USA-Japan Telemundo was 1.27 million, which means that the total combined with FOX was 26.67 million TV viewers, which is greater than the 26,558,000 who watched the 2014 World Cup between Germany-Argentina on ABC/Univision. That means that the game has broken the record for the most-watched US game (men’s or women’s) on US television history, which is the 25.5 million who watched the USA-Portugal game on ESPN and Univision in the 2014 World Cup. When you factor online streaming into the number, the 2014 World Cup final between Argentina and Germany had a combined total of 27,314,274 viewers. We’ll have to wait and see if the FOX and Telemundo streaming numbers help the USA-Japan game beat Argentina-Germany overall. Read more at http://worldsoccertalk.com/2015/07/...tched-game-in-us-history/#ykzpqYYZuP7Wswtt.99
this is what a world cup final can do. girls, boys, men & women- there was a lot of interest. that said, i'm not sure this was as big a cultural moment as the '99 win, where you saw time, newsweek, etc covers.
Some context for how large a TV audience the Final got, in case no one else posted this: source: SportsMediaWatch - "Over 26 million for USA Women's World Cup coronation
A couple of those sports talking heads also made note that the data indicated virtually everyone stayed tuned to the entire game. They were surprised do to the early 4-0 lead.
It's much more fun to watch a stress-free coronation than have your guts wrenched out by 120 minutes, two lead losses and PK losses!
O/T but how much $$$ are the ladies expectes for the win? Any more possible endorsements for them? USSF needs to do more to bring this audience over to the Womens League
I have to say that I feel like an idiot about one thing. I had been wondering why I couldn't find articles on the San Diego Union-Tribune website that were in the print version. Well, I just dawned on me yesterday that the paper had been bought by the company that owns the LA Times. At the time of the purchase announcement, the public was told that the only thing that would change would be the actual printing of the paper would happen at the LA Times press building, because of cost savings. Instead, I find that LA sports columnist articles on the WWC are appearing in the SD Union - they sent up their guys to cover the games, but not Mark Zeigler, who has a lot more experience covering soccer (especially the WC and WWC) and is better than Plaschke or Baxter, by far. Anyway, here is one more by Baxter that is in today's paper... In the U-T the headline is "U.S. Breaks Ceiling with World Cup Title", but online: U.S. World Cup win draws record TV ratings; team looks at what's next ****** It makes you wonder how many more people watched at pubs and sports bars (and other venues) that don't count toward that number. Example of 'other venues' would be: San Diegans gather to cheer World Cup Soccer Champions