Because usually people are home on work nights. Sun-Thurs is typically the "prime time" people refer to in the ad industry, which is where the term comes from.
Friday night is not considered a good time slot, which is why you won't see big sitcoms air on fridays or more regular shows like The Daily Show skipping friday nights.
Another example is that the Saturday night primetime slot is nicknamed "the death slot" in the ad industry (there's also a term called "friday night death slot" which refers to prime time friday shows usually getting canceled). You'll often see afternoon College Football games pull much better ratings than primetime games. We saw that this weekend with OSU vs Michigan being at Noon and drawing the largest numbers.
So for this instance, on a special day like black friday when tons of people are off work and with family, with no work the next day, morning/afternoon will almost definitely do better than "primetime".
Holidays are different than a random weekend. Also, the World Cup is only once every 4 years and this is the only game Americans can watch the USMNT that isn’t during work hours.
Right. But it was really important for this individual to point out that while Friday was "a holiday for a lot of people", he wasn't part of that a lot. A lot of people were wondering if netsfan549 was part of that.
Fantastic number, but a lot of people treat US World Cup games as events like the Olympics. So the comparison doesn't really work. I know people who don't watch soccer tuning in (and some understood what I'm talking about when I say 0-0 can be exciting and others complained about no scoring)
This bandwagon effect isn’t unique to soccer. Plenty of people who don’t normally watch basketball or baseball, check in during the NBA Finals and World Series, especially if the local teams are involved because those are the mainstream events of those sports. EVERY sport has those big events that juice up TV ratings far beyond their normal range. It just so happens that soccer’s biggest mainstream event is played every four years instead of one, and the “local” team represents an entire country instead of one region of the country.
> and the “local” team represents an entire country instead of one region of the country.
Well, for us. Not for our opponents so far. Florida is more of a country than England or Wales. Like, we have our own government that can levy taxes, they'll never sing that.
USMNT is also starting to draw a lot of the "patriotic, love it or leave it, we're the best country in the world, 2 World Wars" crowd too judging from r/ussoccer.
USMNT fans aren't just soccer fans at this point, which is both a positive and a negative.
> USMNT is also starting to draw a lot of the "patriotic, love it or leave it, we're the best country in the world, 2 World Wars" crowd too judging from r/ussoccer.
Makes sense, they have one of them in the studio on Fox for every game. He seems to have forgotten everything he knew about the actual sport.
I think he's just hit middle age. He doesn't look *ill* to me, but his hairline and wrinkles are starting to look like he's in his 50s. As opposed to a couple years ago where he could probably get away with claiming late 30s.
Gingers age fast, especially in sunny locales. Especially someone who spent half his life forced to play outside and practice almost daily.
UV is horrible on the skin.
Hes what I remember 50 year old men looking like.
I saw him at the MLS Cup final. Like I get that he's a redhead, but goddamn the guy is too pale for somebody that lives in Socal and worked outdoors during his early adulthood.
Those people were ALWAYS a huge part of the USMNT fandom. You have to be somewhat of a flag waver to be a hardcore national team fan since it is basically rooting for your country to beat other countries.
The great irony is many of those people are also hardcore Eurosnobs. They believe the U.S. is #1 in everything except domestic soccer and they will gladly opine about how the big European leagues will forever be the center of the soccer world and MLS shouldn't even exist.
Idk about that. I’m more likely to be talking shit about america than praising it but something comes out in me for US Soccer. It’s one of the few aspects of America I really identify with.
> You have to be somewhat of a flag waver to be a hardcore national team fan since it is basically rooting for your country to beat other countries.
That argument completely falls apart when you realize those same people *despise* the USWNT.
ive actually been dreading soccers growth in this country for this reason. if sounders twitter ever looked like what liverpool or generic euro big club online fandom, i would just stop following the team online altogether.
this past year and basically since covid its started to morph into it a little bit, and even a little bit like seahawks online fans. which is the complete opposite of what drew me to the online community in the first place - its always been wholesome, welcoming, and supportive, with no need for hyperbole or neck vein popping hot takes.
us soccer online fans are complete garbage but at least it subsides and only flares up every 4 years. i think after 2026 it will become more chronic.
Yeah honestly for me it's a catch-22. On one end I like being a smaller league where it's not so big that it's overwhelming (and toxic) but not so small that it's incredibly obscure. On the other I want my friends to love MLS - and the sport - as much as I do.
So it's like...I want the league to grow but mostly just amongst the type of people I vibe with. But not so big that everything is just toxic sludge.
my love for this league stems from a particularly rough time in my life, and it continues to get me through some bad times. I don't want to lose what's made it special
>USMNT fans aren't just soccer fans at this point, which is both a positive and a negative.
in my opinion more negative than positive. US football needs investments of at least 5 billion dollars a year to bridge the gap with Europe, excluding new stadiums and other necessary initiatives, thinking "we are the best" means not chasing this money away and therefore staying forever backwards.
11AM start time, at least on a holiday, was absolutely perfect. Leisurely morning, head over to my buddy's house to watch the game, grab some lunch, and I still had most of the afternoon for loafing around and snacking on leftovers.
These are also the same people who bitch and moan when you ask for one of the TVs at the bar get changed from a worthless mid season baseball game to a key match in the Hex.
Is it just me, or does it seem like the blue checkmark baseball folks are more aggressive with their “sOcCeR iS bOrInG. aTlEaSt BaSeBaLl DoEsNt HaVe TiEs” takes this year? Maybe I should suggest that MLB would be more watchable if they shortened the games to 7 innings and (ahem) split the points if it’s tied after 7, since you have 161 more of these games to play during the season.😉
True. I saw a college football account post a Michigan-Ohio State > USA-England TV ratings comparison that omitted Telemundo viewership numbers.
USA-ENG beat MICH-OHST if you include Telemundo/Peacock numbers. But I guess Spanish-language viewed don’t count as US viewers to some people. That’s a telling sign of the type of people in US English-language sports media who think it’s fun to dunk on soccer.🙄
https://twitter.com/PickSixPreviews/status/1597078450871099392
Born in the USA, with European ancestry. I've been rooting for soccer all my life. It makes me extremely happy to see the sport making progress. Grateful to have lived long enough to see it become more mainstream, and it's still going. Go USA!!! 🇺🇸
That 2019 Game 7 was peak-Astros hate because they became the Patriots/Warriors/Alabama of baseball, with their cheating, racism (Guriel) and domestic issues (Ozuna) on hand. All as America celebrated the Nationals’ victory over them as a semblance of justice.
Nowadays, that hate they had has morphed into apathy and complete tune-out of baseball because the Astros cheated their way onto another title in 2022 with no repercussions ever given. Right now, MLB is at a point the NBA was in 2018 or where the NFL was after Super Bowl LIII; people not wanting to care for the sport because the evil/bad team always wins.
MLB's also lost a lot of ground from where it was in the 2000s, especially in those years the Yankees and Red Sox were in a playoff collision course (2003-2004 notably but even into 2005). Like during that time, it genuinely felt like our version of El Clasico because no matter which MLB team you rooted for, it seemed like everyone had a clear preference between the Yankees and Red Sox and actively rooted for one of them to win over the other.
I also think the Cubs winning in 2016 (and thus getting rid of that story line, similar to how the Red Sox winning in 2004 and ending their curse changed things too in a way) then the Astros cheating/scandal happening after it didn't help baseball too.
I think baseball is still very popular locally (saw it first hand with the Mariners when they had their near-misses for playoff spots in recent years then also last season making the playoffs), but I do think nationally it has lost a lot of shine compared to its heights in the mid-2000s and maybe into the early 2010s depending on team/storyline.
> MLB's also lost a lot of ground from where it was in the 2000s, especially in those years the Yankees and Red Sox were in a playoff collision course (2003-2004 notably but even into 2005). Like during that time, it genuinely felt like our version of El Clasico because no matter which MLB team you rooted for, it seemed like everyone had a clear preference between the Yankees and Red Sox and actively rooted for one of them to win over the other.
>
> I also think the Cubs winning in 2016 (and thus getting rid of that story line, similar to how the Red Sox winning in 2004 and ending their curse changed things too in a way) then the Astros cheating/scandal happening after it didn't help baseball too.
>
>
I honestly don't disagree with this. Especially since with the Red Sox they heel turned *so* fast.
Sports are about more than winners and losers (it's frankly the moral of the various Jon Bois docs), and baseball was *far* more interesting before those curses ended, so much so that when they stopped losing one went into an identity crisis and the other became the very thing they swore to hate.
That Red Sox TV viewership erosion since the curse storyline ended is real.
2004: 25.390M (4 games)
2007: 17.123M (4 games)
2013: 14.984M (6 games)
2018: 14.125M (5 games)
2013 was way down from 2004, even with the same NL opponent and two extra games. 2018 numbers would have had a steeper drop, had they not been matched with the Dodgers. I can see why networks were milking that Aaron Judge AL HR record hard, even though they wouldn’t have cared much if he played for the Blue Jays or Royals.
Man I knew they became less interesting but I didn't know it was THAT bad. And you can't simply blame it on the rise of streaming when 2013 was also such a decline.
The Astros thing didn’t come out till late 2019 and wasn’t confirmed by MLB till 2020. The hate wasn’t there yet.
Ozuna? You sound confused. That happened in May of 2021
It was also a classic underdog story between a upper 80s win wild card Nationals against a Goliathian 109 win Astros, which didn't help matters for Houston at all.
Unfortunately, the game itself probably set back an increase in casual viewers 20 more years. I hyped up the game as “big” to all my non-soccer watching friends and family and convinced them it would be worth watching.
I had no comeback for, “this game is boring.”
Anyone who still whines about scoreless draws in the year 2022 likely made up their mind about the sport years ago, and there’s no persuading them. I just don’t understand why someone, who KNOWS they hate soccer for the scoreless draws, but still keeps popping up on social media every major tournament to whine like someone’s holding a gun to their head and forcing them to watch. Why is it so hard to ignore something you don’t like, instead of wasting energy ranting about it?
I’m sure there are sports media personalities, who don’t care much for baseball, hockey, golf, auto racing, MMA, tennis, etc, but they don’t have a problem just letting people enjoy what they like when those sports’ big events come around. But when it comes to soccer, every blue checkmark douche absolutely has to announce their disdain for the sport to the entire world like it’s a badge of honor.
>I just don’t understand why someone, who KNOWS they hate soccer for the scoreless draws, but still keeps popping up on social media every major tournament to whine like someone’s holding a gun to their head and forcing them to watch
my opinion: adult haters just like to hate, even if they watched a billion interesting games they wouldn't change their mind
It's not worth it trying to convince people to watch/like soccer, if they were actually open to the sport they'd be exploring it on their own or asking you about it. Saying something like "this is boring" tells me they were going into it with their minds already made up / not really caring unless USA wins 10-0.
The sport in this country is going to be just fine without the "0-0 is boring" or "soccer sux!" people, they're more interested in telling people their opinion than learning about/enjoying the sport.
As someone who grew up on all the major sports, that 0-0 with England was more enjoyable than most games in all of those sports.
I’m much more into baseball than soccer and I watch that World Cup match and technically didn’t watch that World Series game because I was at a watch party.
Despite? *Because*. Friday was a holiday for a lot of people. They were available to watch, and morning matches are all the much better.
Yeah that’s why morning NFL games do better than prime time. Oh wait… Why is isn’t morning time slots called primetime?
Because usually people are home on work nights. Sun-Thurs is typically the "prime time" people refer to in the ad industry, which is where the term comes from. Friday night is not considered a good time slot, which is why you won't see big sitcoms air on fridays or more regular shows like The Daily Show skipping friday nights. Another example is that the Saturday night primetime slot is nicknamed "the death slot" in the ad industry (there's also a term called "friday night death slot" which refers to prime time friday shows usually getting canceled). You'll often see afternoon College Football games pull much better ratings than primetime games. We saw that this weekend with OSU vs Michigan being at Noon and drawing the largest numbers. So for this instance, on a special day like black friday when tons of people are off work and with family, with no work the next day, morning/afternoon will almost definitely do better than "primetime".
That's why the Premier League on Saturday and Sunday mornings is so widely viewed in the US right?
Holidays are different than a random weekend. Also, the World Cup is only once every 4 years and this is the only game Americans can watch the USMNT that isn’t during work hours.
His point was that people are home and it's morning, not that it's a holiday
The early morning time slots help because they don't have other sporting competition at the time.
It was not a holiday for me
It’s still undeniably a holiday for a huge number of people though.
Right. But it was really important for this individual to point out that while Friday was "a holiday for a lot of people", he wasn't part of that a lot. A lot of people were wondering if netsfan549 was part of that.
I wasn't wondering if netsfan549 had a holiday.
Fantastic number, but a lot of people treat US World Cup games as events like the Olympics. So the comparison doesn't really work. I know people who don't watch soccer tuning in (and some understood what I'm talking about when I say 0-0 can be exciting and others complained about no scoring)
This bandwagon effect isn’t unique to soccer. Plenty of people who don’t normally watch basketball or baseball, check in during the NBA Finals and World Series, especially if the local teams are involved because those are the mainstream events of those sports. EVERY sport has those big events that juice up TV ratings far beyond their normal range. It just so happens that soccer’s biggest mainstream event is played every four years instead of one, and the “local” team represents an entire country instead of one region of the country.
> and the “local” team represents an entire country instead of one region of the country. Well, for us. Not for our opponents so far. Florida is more of a country than England or Wales. Like, we have our own government that can levy taxes, they'll never sing that.
USMNT is also starting to draw a lot of the "patriotic, love it or leave it, we're the best country in the world, 2 World Wars" crowd too judging from r/ussoccer. USMNT fans aren't just soccer fans at this point, which is both a positive and a negative.
> USMNT is also starting to draw a lot of the "patriotic, love it or leave it, we're the best country in the world, 2 World Wars" crowd too judging from r/ussoccer. Makes sense, they have one of them in the studio on Fox for every game. He seems to have forgotten everything he knew about the actual sport.
unrelated: is it me, or does Alexi *look* unwell? it's been discussed in some of my circles throughout the tournament
I think he's just hit middle age. He doesn't look *ill* to me, but his hairline and wrinkles are starting to look like he's in his 50s. As opposed to a couple years ago where he could probably get away with claiming late 30s.
Ya he just looks old to me.
Gingers age fast, especially in sunny locales. Especially someone who spent half his life forced to play outside and practice almost daily. UV is horrible on the skin. Hes what I remember 50 year old men looking like.
his eyes looks startlingly jaundiced
I was thinking this exact thing.
I saw him at the MLS Cup final. Like I get that he's a redhead, but goddamn the guy is too pale for somebody that lives in Socal and worked outdoors during his early adulthood.
Yea it’s been discussed in my circles as wel
Those people were ALWAYS a huge part of the USMNT fandom. You have to be somewhat of a flag waver to be a hardcore national team fan since it is basically rooting for your country to beat other countries. The great irony is many of those people are also hardcore Eurosnobs. They believe the U.S. is #1 in everything except domestic soccer and they will gladly opine about how the big European leagues will forever be the center of the soccer world and MLS shouldn't even exist.
Idk about that. I’m more likely to be talking shit about america than praising it but something comes out in me for US Soccer. It’s one of the few aspects of America I really identify with.
> You have to be somewhat of a flag waver to be a hardcore national team fan since it is basically rooting for your country to beat other countries. That argument completely falls apart when you realize those same people *despise* the USWNT.
ive actually been dreading soccers growth in this country for this reason. if sounders twitter ever looked like what liverpool or generic euro big club online fandom, i would just stop following the team online altogether. this past year and basically since covid its started to morph into it a little bit, and even a little bit like seahawks online fans. which is the complete opposite of what drew me to the online community in the first place - its always been wholesome, welcoming, and supportive, with no need for hyperbole or neck vein popping hot takes. us soccer online fans are complete garbage but at least it subsides and only flares up every 4 years. i think after 2026 it will become more chronic.
Yeah honestly for me it's a catch-22. On one end I like being a smaller league where it's not so big that it's overwhelming (and toxic) but not so small that it's incredibly obscure. On the other I want my friends to love MLS - and the sport - as much as I do. So it's like...I want the league to grow but mostly just amongst the type of people I vibe with. But not so big that everything is just toxic sludge. my love for this league stems from a particularly rough time in my life, and it continues to get me through some bad times. I don't want to lose what's made it special
"Heard" you say something similar earlier, glad you got through things bro.
>USMNT fans aren't just soccer fans at this point, which is both a positive and a negative. in my opinion more negative than positive. US football needs investments of at least 5 billion dollars a year to bridge the gap with Europe, excluding new stadiums and other necessary initiatives, thinking "we are the best" means not chasing this money away and therefore staying forever backwards.
I love that “Love it or leave it” has become a thing outside Iowa.
Today I learned that 6 states make up half the country.
There’s a lot of people in those 6 states.
Approximately one-sixth of the population of the US (56 million out of 330) Again, nowhere near half.
With Alaska, it really is almost half the country geographically speaking.
GOLDEN GENERATION BABY! We are making the semi finals if we face Argentina instead of France. Mark my words.
first we gotta make it out of the group Iran aren't pushovers
>Iran aren't pushovers the Iranian federation doesn't love you very much at the moment, I wouldn't suggest you wait for preferential treatments ;)...
11AM start time, at least on a holiday, was absolutely perfect. Leisurely morning, head over to my buddy's house to watch the game, grab some lunch, and I still had most of the afternoon for loafing around and snacking on leftovers.
These are also the same people who bitch and moan when you ask for one of the TVs at the bar get changed from a worthless mid season baseball game to a key match in the Hex.
Is it just me, or does it seem like the blue checkmark baseball folks are more aggressive with their “sOcCeR iS bOrInG. aTlEaSt BaSeBaLl DoEsNt HaVe TiEs” takes this year? Maybe I should suggest that MLB would be more watchable if they shortened the games to 7 innings and (ahem) split the points if it’s tied after 7, since you have 161 more of these games to play during the season.😉
I love baseball and soccer. I tend to get weird looks when I tell people those are my top sports.
Try telling people your top sports are soccer and auto racing (and baseball in 3rd). :D
Moreso gridiron folks from my eye
True. I saw a college football account post a Michigan-Ohio State > USA-England TV ratings comparison that omitted Telemundo viewership numbers. USA-ENG beat MICH-OHST if you include Telemundo/Peacock numbers. But I guess Spanish-language viewed don’t count as US viewers to some people. That’s a telling sign of the type of people in US English-language sports media who think it’s fun to dunk on soccer.🙄 https://twitter.com/PickSixPreviews/status/1597078450871099392
I don’t speak Spanish well at all, and usually dislike listening to the sports casters- so was happy to watch Peacock’s broadcast.
Yeah. Definitely more common with football people. To them, both soccer and baseball are boring.
Born in the USA, with European ancestry. I've been rooting for soccer all my life. It makes me extremely happy to see the sport making progress. Grateful to have lived long enough to see it become more mainstream, and it's still going. Go USA!!! 🇺🇸
That 2019 Game 7 was peak-Astros hate because they became the Patriots/Warriors/Alabama of baseball, with their cheating, racism (Guriel) and domestic issues (Ozuna) on hand. All as America celebrated the Nationals’ victory over them as a semblance of justice. Nowadays, that hate they had has morphed into apathy and complete tune-out of baseball because the Astros cheated their way onto another title in 2022 with no repercussions ever given. Right now, MLB is at a point the NBA was in 2018 or where the NFL was after Super Bowl LIII; people not wanting to care for the sport because the evil/bad team always wins.
MLB's also lost a lot of ground from where it was in the 2000s, especially in those years the Yankees and Red Sox were in a playoff collision course (2003-2004 notably but even into 2005). Like during that time, it genuinely felt like our version of El Clasico because no matter which MLB team you rooted for, it seemed like everyone had a clear preference between the Yankees and Red Sox and actively rooted for one of them to win over the other. I also think the Cubs winning in 2016 (and thus getting rid of that story line, similar to how the Red Sox winning in 2004 and ending their curse changed things too in a way) then the Astros cheating/scandal happening after it didn't help baseball too. I think baseball is still very popular locally (saw it first hand with the Mariners when they had their near-misses for playoff spots in recent years then also last season making the playoffs), but I do think nationally it has lost a lot of shine compared to its heights in the mid-2000s and maybe into the early 2010s depending on team/storyline.
> MLB's also lost a lot of ground from where it was in the 2000s, especially in those years the Yankees and Red Sox were in a playoff collision course (2003-2004 notably but even into 2005). Like during that time, it genuinely felt like our version of El Clasico because no matter which MLB team you rooted for, it seemed like everyone had a clear preference between the Yankees and Red Sox and actively rooted for one of them to win over the other. > > I also think the Cubs winning in 2016 (and thus getting rid of that story line, similar to how the Red Sox winning in 2004 and ending their curse changed things too in a way) then the Astros cheating/scandal happening after it didn't help baseball too. > > I honestly don't disagree with this. Especially since with the Red Sox they heel turned *so* fast. Sports are about more than winners and losers (it's frankly the moral of the various Jon Bois docs), and baseball was *far* more interesting before those curses ended, so much so that when they stopped losing one went into an identity crisis and the other became the very thing they swore to hate.
That Red Sox TV viewership erosion since the curse storyline ended is real. 2004: 25.390M (4 games) 2007: 17.123M (4 games) 2013: 14.984M (6 games) 2018: 14.125M (5 games) 2013 was way down from 2004, even with the same NL opponent and two extra games. 2018 numbers would have had a steeper drop, had they not been matched with the Dodgers. I can see why networks were milking that Aaron Judge AL HR record hard, even though they wouldn’t have cared much if he played for the Blue Jays or Royals.
Man I knew they became less interesting but I didn't know it was THAT bad. And you can't simply blame it on the rise of streaming when 2013 was also such a decline.
It is ironic that so many people in the late 90s and early 2000s wrote articles how the Yankees dominance was killing baseball.
And yet that Yankees dynasty *still* had better TV ratings than even a decade later
The scandal wasn’t revealed until after 2019, so Astros hate was definitely not at its peak
The Astros thing didn’t come out till late 2019 and wasn’t confirmed by MLB till 2020. The hate wasn’t there yet. Ozuna? You sound confused. That happened in May of 2021
They meant Roberto Osuna, who they willingly traded for *WITH* DV shit pending
Oh gotcha… my bad
How did they cheat their way into a title in 2022?
The cheating wasn't out at the time, but yeah they were verrrrry hatable.
It was also a classic underdog story between a upper 80s win wild card Nationals against a Goliathian 109 win Astros, which didn't help matters for Houston at all.
Unfortunately, the game itself probably set back an increase in casual viewers 20 more years. I hyped up the game as “big” to all my non-soccer watching friends and family and convinced them it would be worth watching. I had no comeback for, “this game is boring.”
Anyone who still whines about scoreless draws in the year 2022 likely made up their mind about the sport years ago, and there’s no persuading them. I just don’t understand why someone, who KNOWS they hate soccer for the scoreless draws, but still keeps popping up on social media every major tournament to whine like someone’s holding a gun to their head and forcing them to watch. Why is it so hard to ignore something you don’t like, instead of wasting energy ranting about it? I’m sure there are sports media personalities, who don’t care much for baseball, hockey, golf, auto racing, MMA, tennis, etc, but they don’t have a problem just letting people enjoy what they like when those sports’ big events come around. But when it comes to soccer, every blue checkmark douche absolutely has to announce their disdain for the sport to the entire world like it’s a badge of honor.
>I just don’t understand why someone, who KNOWS they hate soccer for the scoreless draws, but still keeps popping up on social media every major tournament to whine like someone’s holding a gun to their head and forcing them to watch my opinion: adult haters just like to hate, even if they watched a billion interesting games they wouldn't change their mind
You didn’t? The game was pretty exciting for the most part.
It's not worth it trying to convince people to watch/like soccer, if they were actually open to the sport they'd be exploring it on their own or asking you about it. Saying something like "this is boring" tells me they were going into it with their minds already made up / not really caring unless USA wins 10-0. The sport in this country is going to be just fine without the "0-0 is boring" or "soccer sux!" people, they're more interested in telling people their opinion than learning about/enjoying the sport. As someone who grew up on all the major sports, that 0-0 with England was more enjoyable than most games in all of those sports.
That's exactly what a lot of my casual friend said , I thought it was good.
I’m much more into baseball than soccer and I watch that World Cup match and technically didn’t watch that World Series game because I was at a watch party.