FOX Broadcasting Company broke the record Sunday for the most viewed English Premier League game in U.S. television history. The tape-delayed game featuring Chelsea against Liverpool scored an audience of 1.67 million, beating out the previous record of 1.626 million who watched the Tottenham Hotspur against Arsenal match last month.
In just two months, FOX has increased the number of its viewers by 70,000 from the 1.6 million who watched the September 18 broadcast (Manchester United against Chelsea) to the November 20 number (Chelsea and Liverpool).
What was the impact of CNN talk show host Piers Morgan, who was one of FOX’s studio analysts? An extra 74,000 viewers on FOX compared to the 1.626 million (Tottenham versus Arsenal), although it’s only fair to add that the game featured different teams which may have made more of an impact, either positive or negative.
While FOX showed the Chelsea versus Liverpool game on tape-delay, FOX Soccer showed it live and it was seen by an audience of 360,000. That was 59,000 more viewers than the North London derby from October.
FOX has announced that they have one more Premier League match on their schedule this season. That’s the live telecast of Chelsea against Manchester United on Super Bowl Sunday (February 5). Based on the impressive TV ratings, it’ll be interesting to see if FOX decides to add more games to its schedule when there is no NFL double-header.
The live broadcast of the 2011 Champions League Final on FOX was viewed by 2.6 million, in the U.S.
I have to believe they’ll air more games between now and the end of the season. Why wouldn’t they, with numbers like these?
Would be interesting to see what kind of numbers they could draw if the aired games once the NFL is done.
Think you’ll find showing liverpool games is the way forward ask lebron james, he’s the man
They did not show the Man Utd game in the San Francisco Bay Area so that has to affect those earlier numbers.
Buy La Liga rights in 2012 and then you can show the Real Madrid-Barcelona game LIVE on FOX. Usually the 2 games are in November/December and April/May.
Nobody cares about La Liga, the most boring league ever, a league of 2 teams, MLS is better than that piece of crap
If only Man Utd vs Man City wasn’t on so damn early on that Sunday morning, they would have smashed the record…
Would be interesting to compare it to the regular programming ratings and see whether epl matches beat regular shows/reruns. I think having arsenal or tottenham on fox makes sense because these two teams can score 5 and let in 6 so its always entertaining to the us public (that doesn’t watch fsc). I would hate for a nil-nil match because that would turn off regular americans.
The EPL is number 2 football league in the usa, 2nd to Mex League. Spanish League will be #3. German #4.
Pity they aren’t going to show Liverpool V City this Sunday as well. That is another match that would get decent ratings I am sure.
A game this Sunday Manchester United at Arsenal, I see our New York Redbulls captain Thierry Henry on loan will start. Should be an interesting game.
Well 500 million viewers 165 !! What more do I have to say #liverpoolvsmanu