World Cup Final, ‘Tenors’ Set New Highs on Local Fields : Television: Sunday’s Brazil-Italy showdown is likely to rank as the most-watched soccer game in U.S. history. The concert brought in record pledges for KCET and KOCE.
The final World Cup game Sunday drew impressive television ratings locally and, while not as strong nationally, seems likely to rank as the most-watched soccer game in U.S. history.
Local ratings for the “Three Tenors” concert, meanwhile, weren’t as big as the soccer championship but viewers’ gratitude was: Both KCET-TV Channel 28 in Los Angeles and KOCE-TV Channel 50 in Huntington Beach earned record donation promises during their telecasts Sunday.
ABC’s coverage of the World Cup showdown between Brazil and Italy averaged a 12.4 rating in 32 markets for which ratings were available Monday. The national rating won’t be available until Thursday, but given those overnight figures, it is expected to exceed the previous soccer record of 9.3 for the U.S.-Brazil World Cup game July 4. (By contrast, the Super Bowl last January got a 27.8, and last week’s baseball All-Star game earned a 15.7.)
Nowhere was the game more watched than in the market covering Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, where it registered an 18.1 rating on KABC-TV Channel 7 and a 6.7 on Spanish-language KMEX-TV Channel 34--for a total viewership of more than 1.2 million homes, about 56% of all households watching TV between 12:30 and 3:30 p.m.
The “Three Tenors” concert--taped Saturday night at Dodger Stadium with performances by Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras--was shown twice Sunday on both KCET and KOCE and brought the two public-television stations more than $588,000 in pledges from grateful viewers.
National ratings for the concert were not expected until today, but the 4 p.m. telecast on KCET was seen in about 270,000 homes, while the 7 p.m. showing reached about 285,000 homes. KOCE ratings were not available.
KCET, which had 10 pledge breaks during its two broadcasts, said it received $469,944 in pledges from 4,526 callers--both records for a single day of fund raising, and both expected to climb as additional calls were tabulated Monday.
The smaller KOCE raised about $118,900 and added 1,050 new members, spokeswoman Nancy Lambing said Monday. “This was absolutely the most we’ve ever” raised with a drive pegged to a particular program, she said.
KOCE will rebroadcast the show Wednesday at 8 p.m. KCET will show it again Aug. 20 at 8 p.m. and Aug. 21 at 7 p.m.
Promoters wouldn’t release figures, but reliable sources estimated that the concert itself grossed upward of $13 million. Official attendance was 56,000.
