You’re going to be shocked to learn that airing a live sporting event on broadcast television after an NFL game drew a huge audience.
On Tuesday, Fox announced that the network’s broadcast of the Portland-Colorado MLS Playoffs match drew 1.850 million viewers, the most-watched MLS match ever on Fox and the most ever for an MLS match since 2004.
FOX scored the most-watched @MLS match since 2004 with its Thanksgiving Day playoff match featuring the @TimbersFC and @ColoradoRapids ⚽️🦃 pic.twitter.com/AS4MEQVBG9
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) November 30, 2021
Even though this number isn’t huge compared to the three NFL games that aired on Thanksgiving (and even the Egg Bowl on ESPN, which topped two million viewers), it’s still a substantial amount of viewers for an MLS game – especially one that went head to head with a monster NFL game on CBS.
All and all, both MLS and Fox should be happy here, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a Thanksgiving Day game could be a tradition going forward for MLS, depending on who the league’s next TV partners will be.