The Women’s World Cup is back: Here’s what to expect from Fox’s coverage

We are in a time of soccer ascendency in the United States. Yes, yes, I know you have heard this for years, dating back to a Brazilian fellow named Edson Arantes do Nascimento being unveiled at New York’s 21 Club in June 1975.

But hear me out.

This month, Lionel Messi, the soccer God of the moment, joined Inter Miami of MLS. It is a massive signing that will change, if nothing else, the level of soccer discussion in the United States. The National Women’s Soccer League has plans to expand to 14 teams in 2024 and then add two more clubs by 2026. Next year, the United States will host Copa América, the quadrennial football championship organized by CONMEBOL, South America’s soccer confederation, and featuring world powers such as Messi’s Argentina and Brazil, as well as six teams from North America’s CONCACAF (which figures to include the U.S. and Mexican men’s national teams, pending qualification). Then comes the ultimate moment — the 2026 World Cup will be jointly hosted by 16 cities in three North American countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States.

The Women’s World Cup, which begins this week, is an extension of this soccer bounty, and in terms of tonnage, you will be inundated with high-level soccer as a viewer over the next four weeks (especially if you are willing to watch at all hours of the evening). From Thursday through Aug. 20, Fox Sports will air all 64 matches of the Women’s World Cup live. There are 29 games on Fox — the most Women’s World Cup matches ever on a U.S. English-language broadcast network — while 35 will air on FS1. The quarterfinals, semifinals, third-place match and the final will all be televised on Fox. Every match will stream live on the Fox Sports App, and the tournament will be broadcast in 4K.

Telemundo has the Spanish-language rights to the event (as well as the 2024 Olympic Games and 2026 men’s World Cup) and you’ll find information on Telemundo’s coverage here, here and here, which includes 33 matches on Telemundo — the most ever Women’s World Cup matches on any broadcast network in U.S. television history — 31 on Universo, and every match streaming live on Peacock.

The biggest challenge for U.S. broadcasters for this Women’s World Cup is the time difference, given the tournament is being held in Australia and New Zealand. Sydney is 14 hours ahead of Eastern time. New Zealand has one time zone, 16 hours ahead of Eastern time. The final, which is expected to include the U.S., will air at 6 a.m. ET on Aug. 20. The first semifinal will air at 4 a.m. ET on Aug. 15 while the second semifinal will air on Aug. 16 at 6 a.m. ET.

The United States’ win over the Netherlands four years ago in France averaged a combined 16.9 million viewers on Fox and Telemundo, which included 15.57 million viewers on Fox. The U.S. win over Japan in the Women’s World Cup final in 2015 (held in time-friendly Canada) averaged a stunning 25.4 million viewers. Obviously, it will be hard to replicate that given the time slot.

“It’s far from an optimum time slot, but at the same time, you hope that you build momentum as you go along,” said David Neal, the executive producer of World Cup coverage on Fox and vice president of production. “You hope the momentum and excitement of the U.S. trying to do what no team has ever done, win three World Cup championships in a row, as well as the patriotic nature of wrapping yourself in the flag and cheering for Team USA, gives us the sufficient audience.”

The schedule does offer something of a great start for Fox in the group stage. The Americans’ opener against Vietnam will air Friday at 9 p.m. ET on Fox. The second U.S. game is a rematch of the World Cup final from four years ago and will air at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, July 26. The final group-stage match for the U.S. is against Portugal, which will air at 3 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Aug. 1.

If the Americans win their group, as expected, their first knockout stage game would be at a favorable time as well, airing at 10 p.m. ET on Saturday, Aug. 5. Should they win that, their quarterfinal game would air at 9 p.m. ET on Thursday, Aug. 10.

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“The first two games are about as great a group-stage match as you can get and in a great time slot,” Neal said. “What we do in every one of these tournaments is try to create viewing habits. So we have these two U.S. women’s stage matches and one that you can really promote when they play the Dutch. We hope that we generate enough interest. We know the challenges of people getting up in the very off hours of the night. But if the U.S. women captured people’s imaginations, we think that will pay some dividends for us.”

JP Dellacamera — who will call all the U.S. games, as well as the final and Thursday’s tournament opener, with partner Aly Wagner — says he’s not worried about viewership.

“We are a soccer nation, and we have been a soccer nation for years,” said Dellacamera. “The bars will be opened up early; they’ll be closing late. People will go to watch parties. I’m not worried about the viewership. If the final, for argument’s sake, would be 3 in the morning and the U.S. was playing, I’ll take a chance that rating will be very good.”

While Fox cannot control the location, it can control who calls the tournament between its game coverage and studio programming. There will be three announcing teams on site in Australia and New Zealand — the lead team of Dellacamera and Wagner and the teams of Jacqui Oatley and Lori Lindsey and John Strong and Kyndra de St. Aubin. The teams of Kate Scott and Danielle Slaton and Jenn Hildreth and Warren Barton will call games from Fox’s headquarters in Los Angeles. You can see the entire broadcast group below, and here are the group-stage broadcast assignments.

Fox’s studio presentation for the men’s World Cup in Qatar was roundly criticized — and deservedly so. Those who had access to other national broadcasters, such as TSN in Canada, or remember when ESPN had its shot as a World Cup broadcaster saw deep discussions on non-U.S. teams during studio shows and were educated on tactics. Those networks did not punt on discussions of human rights issues, whether in Qatar or elsewhere. In comparison, Fox’s Women’s World Cup analysis has been much better for viewers, in my opinion. Neal said that he thinks Carli Lloyd, who will play a major role in this coverage as a lead studio analyst, is going to be fantastic for viewers.

“The first three times I contacted her or people at U.S. soccer on whether she would be interested in broadcasting when she retired, we sort of got the Heisman Trophy pose,” Neal said. “It was, ‘Stay away, I’m not that interested.’ Once she finally decided to give it a try, I think she liked her experience very much. She’s going to be a lead voice on our coverage from start to finish, and I think a very apparent upgrade.”

Viewers will also have the option of checking out “World Cup Now” pre- and postgame shows on Twitter, including commentary and analysis from hosts Leslie Osborne, Jimmy Conrad and Melissa Ortiz along with the broadcasters onsite.

Since he was named executive producer of Fox’s World Cup coverage in 2012, Neal has always been consistent when it comes to the question of keeping content discussion on the field.

“We’re going to do what we do best, which is certainly tactics, the games, the results,” Neal said. “But at the same time, we have no prohibition on topics. The U.S. women had been in the center of the ongoing debate about pay equity, and that makes it relevant to our viewership. We don’t have an iron-clad mandate that it won’t be discussed. But we believe the majority of viewers will be watching to see the results on the field of play. In Qatar, they voted with their remote controls, and we got enormous numbers with our focus on the field of play.”

Fox traditionally highlights a team outside of the United States — that choice is, not surprisingly, Mexico for the men’s World Cup — and Neal said there will be an extra focus during Fox’s coverage on Australia’s women’s team.

“The designated team of interest is the home team, Australia,” Neal said. “I’ve always believed whether it is the Olympics or the World Cup, you can’t overestimate the power of the home-field advantage, and particularly in Australia, which is so wonderfully crazy for sport. The Matildas have been in the headlines or the back page of the tabloid press in Australia, which is the ultimate measuring stick for pop-culture elements. The great news for us is that we (the U.S.) are on the opposite side of the bracket. So if the U.S. and Australia play, the only time that will happen will be the final. That could be amazing. They have Sam Kerr, one of the legitimate top-five players in the world. We will be putting a lot of focus on Australia. We like to take the home countries and make them part of our storytelling and characters in the play.”

Based on the photos they sent out to the press, Fox looks like it nailed the location for its studio set, outside the Park Hyatt Sydney hotel, with the iconic Sydney Opera House as the main backdrop along with the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Campbells Cove. Neal said he first fell in love with the studio location 23 years ago when he was serving as the executive producer of NBC’s coverage of the Sydney Olympics. He said it took more than a year for all the permits needed given how public a place the site is.

“I remember thinking if we ever had a show to do with an outdoor location, this would be the place,” Neal said. “I felt like this would be ideal for us keeping in the tradition of us having iconic backgrounds whenever possible. We have an absolute money shot of the Sydney Opera House, and if you shoot slightly to the left, you get Harbour Bridge as well. It’s a beautiful location.”

This will be Neal’s last assignment for Fox. His career includes producing nine Olympics, four NBA Finals, and two World Series for NBC, and helping launch sports cable network Univision Deportes (UDN). He was in the truck for Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals — Michael Jordan’s final game with the Chicago Bulls — which averaged 35.9 million viewers. That is the most-watched NBA Finals game of all time. This tournament will be his fifth World Cup for Fox (men and women) as executive producer. (Neal’s departure opens up a significant job for a soccer-loving media executive.)

“Maybe this sounds naive, but I do believe that international sport can contribute to a better understanding of our global nature,” Neal said. “It’s people understanding each other and appreciating each other’s customs and desires in a better way.”