Still some sports
While Fox doesn’t have the Super Bowl this year, the NFL is still a big part of the advertising game plan. Fox will have 11 doubleheaders throughout the season, including a Saturday double bill on Dec. 20 featuring the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders in one game and the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers in another.
Its college football slate, meanwhile, featured Texas and Ohio State during opening week and the Ohio State-Michigan game on Thanksgiving weekend.
As for the World Cup, Fox pointed out to advertisers that this is the first year the field of nations has expanded from 32 to 48, providing more opportunity for exposure to roughly 150 million viewers. Fox’s slate, meanwhile, includes a July 4 matchup in Philadelphia that’s in a stage Team USA could potentially reach during U.S. 250th anniversary celebrations, which Fox is also programming around.
Finally, NFL on Fox host Michael Strahan introduced the crowd to Fox Indianapolis 500 coverage—which has seen viewership increase 25% from the circuit’s coverage last year—by bringing out late-night legend and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team owner David Letterman—who let Strahan throw him around a bit as a throwback to a Late Night appearance and interviewed would-be Indy three-peat champion Josef Newgarden.
Telling the audience, “It’s so nice to be out of the house,” and, “I haven’t worked since Bonanza,” Letterman took the temperature of the room and sensed that the crowd—which had been somewhat quiet to that point—would rather be elsewhere. With a 72-degree day and partly cloudy skies outside—and a week of rain ahead—he sensed their thoughts might be elsewhere.
“Where would you want to be on the nicest day in a decade?” Letterman asked. “Would you rather be anywhere but here, ladies and gentlemen?”
