Univision averaged a 3.1 rating and 7.981 million viewers for Mexico's 4-2 defeat of the U.S. in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final on Saturday night from 8:54-11:04pm ET, marking the net's best primetime audience ever. The telecast topped the Mexico-Honduras semifinal, which had set the record last Wednesday night with a 2.9 rating and 7.115 million viewers. Mexico-U.S. also marks Univision's third most-viewed sporting event in the net’s history behind the '10 FIFA World Cup Round of 16 match between Mexico and Argentina (8.7 million viewers) and the '10 World Cup Final between Spain and the Netherlands (8.3 million viewers). For the week ending June 26, Mexico-U.S. was also the ninth most-viewed primetime program on all of TV, as well as the most-viewed sports telecast of the week (Austin Karp, THE DAILY). In Denver, Dusty Saunders wrote under the header, "Soccer On TV Seizes Golden Opportunity." Citing increased ratings for this year's Gold Cup, Saunders wrote, "When mainstream broadcasting in the U.S. realizes soccer is a sport worth covering, soccer's fan base should continue to grow." Meanwhile, when Mexico F Giovani Dos Santos scored with less than 15 minutes remaining to give Mexico a two-goal lead, Fox's "instant-replay cameras focused" on his footwork. The replay "also provided an agonizing view of U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard peering through the net after Dos Santos scored" (DENVER POST, 6/27).
MAKING THE PITCH: ESPN earned a 0.7 overnight rating for Sunday's Germany-Canada FIFA Women's World Cup game, the network's first telecast of the tournament, "more than twice the rating" of the MLS Fire-Red Bulls game that followed it (USA TODAY, 6/28). Germany-Canada averaged 14.1 million viewers in the host country, a record for a women's soccer game in Germany. The previous best was 11.4 million viewers for the '03 World Cup Final. In Canada, the game averaged 684,000 viewers, the highest Women's World Cup audience ever in the country (FIFA).
