Fox Sees Summer Ratings Success, Led By Record Soccer Audiences With Assists From WWE & Game Shows

EXCLUSIVE: As the European Championship and Copa America finals approach, Fox is touting its success across entertainment programming this summer, which has been led by its deluge of soccer coverage.

Viewing across Fox entertainment and sports programming is up 57% from last year to 18.5B minutes across platforms. A majority of that viewing is coming from sports, which have seen 66% growth to put up a whopping 12.4B minutes.

Meanwhile, entertainment content has generated 6.1B minutes, a 42% lift from last summer, according to the company.

Fox has been setting records with its viewership for both the Euros and Copa America, as Deadline has been reporting throughout the tournaments. Recently, all four semifinal matches amassed stunning viewership for soccer on U.S. English-language television, especially with the USMNT out.

Luckily for Fox, the interest generated by soccer has translated to more eyeballs on the network in general, with all its entertainment programming benefitting from a viewership boost as well.

“With audiences expecting year-round originals and sports, there’s no vacation in television,” said Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade.  “Getting Fox to the top spot are popular series like our new game shows The Quiz with Balls and The 1% Club, plus an outstanding lineup from our friends at Fox Sports. It’s great to see audiences beating the heat and enjoying our refreshing summer schedule.”

In the first five weeks of summer, Fox is ranking as No. 1 in entertainment programming in adults 18-49 with a 0.38 rating and adults 25-54 with a 0.54 rating after seven days of viewing. In primetime, the network is up 43% in adults 18-49, which is a significant boost. Among total viewers, Fox is up 40% year-over-year.

Particularly, Fox has been seeing success with its new game shows, The 1% Club and The Quiz with Balls. The shows are tied with a 0.3 rating in the 18-49 demo after seven days of viewing.

Other unscripted programming that is helping support Fox’s numbers this summer are WWE’s Smackdown, Masterchef: Generations, and Beat Shazam.

With the Copa America and Euros finals this weekend, there may be a bit of a lull for Fox’s sports programming and therefore a dip in those stellar audiences. That’s the case for most networks, though, as NBC’s Paris Olympics coverage is going to make a ton of noise that will be difficult for others to compete with on the sports programming front.

However, Fox is still likely to maintain a strong audience through the summer, especially with WWE’s SummerSlam approaching in August. Smackdown is a strong, consistent performer for Fox, and it generally performs even better in conjunction with big WWE events.

It remains to be seen how the game shows and additional unscripted content will continue performing to sustain Fox through to the start of the fall broadcast season (and football season).