Nov 25, 2021; Commerce City, CO, USA; Portland Timbers defender Larrys Mabiala (33) celebrates with defender Jose van Rankin (2) and midfielder Diego Chara (21) and defender Dario Zuparic (13) and goalkeeper Steve Clark (12) after the match against the Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
By Joe Lucia on

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.

https://twitter.com/FOXSportsPR/status/1465768142387486720

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.

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.

View all posts by Joe Lucia