Ratings: Women’s World Cup final throttles ‘Big Brother 17,’ ‘Celebrity Family Feud’

While Americans may not necessarily care about soccer around the clock, there are a few times in which they do rather intently. During the Women’s World Cup is one of those such times. Team USA is typically very successful nation in the tournament, having won on three occasions (more than any other team) and also having finished in the top three every single time that the event has taken place.

Ultimately, this tends to translate into a ton of viewers. While there are no final ratings yet (those will more than likely come tomorrow), the final between the United States in Japan last night on Fox generated over 20 million viewers and also over a 6.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic. These are the sort of ratings generally reserved only for the NFL, but women’s soccer managed to draw them in as Team USA throttled the opponent in the game. It probably helps that there are a variety of well-known names on the team, from Carli Lloyd to Alex Morgan.

Of course, the rise of soccer meant the decline of other shows. “Big Brother 17” posted its lowest-ever Sunday rating in a 1.5, which we assume is largely due to the big match more so than anything that has to do with this show. It’s been a pretty great season! “Celebrity Family Feud” also generated a 1.5 rating, which shows further why these game show experiments only tend to work for several weeks before they start to drop a little bit.

Will these ratings mean more women’s soccer matches airing on big TV networks? We’re not willing to go that far. It is almost like the Olympics, which tend to draw enormous ratings when they air, but individual events in sports like track and gymnastics fail to make a splash before and after.

Want to get some other news related to all we cover? Then be sure to sign up for some TV scoop via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)