In the United States, football — not football — is still king.
While there were hundreds of millions around the world watching the Leo Messi and Argentina win the World Cup on Sunday morning into afternoon, there were, likely, millions in the United States waiting for the afternoon slate of NFL games.
As the clock inched ever-uncomfortably towards 1 p.m. ET start for those games, Gonzalo Matiel netted the Cup-winning goal for Argentina. In the minutes that followed Argentina's victory over France, though, a business decision was made: Rather than stick with the World Cup fallout and trophy presentation on the flagship Fox station, the powers that be opted to switch over to FS1, Fox's sports-devoted underling station, in the midst of the chaos.
PROGRAMMING ALERT 🚨
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) December 18, 2022
In the event the FIFA World Cup trophy ceremony happens near or after 1PM ET, live coverage of the trophy celebration will shift to FS1 as the NFL kicks off on FOX.
MORE: Who has won the most World Cups? Messi gets first, solidifies legacy
Viewers who stuck to Fox were greeted by Jaguars-Cowboys, Falcons-Saints or Eagles-Bears depending on your market. That's hardly a slate of games worthy of the Fox flagship, but perhaps in the United States it is.
Fox has the rights to broadcast a variety of sports, including the NFL, and they may choose to air some NFL games on FS1 as part of their programming schedule. It's not uncommon for rights holders with a family of networks (ESPN to ESPN2 to ESPNU to ESPNNews, for instance) to begin its broadcast on a sister network until the event currently airing reaches its conclusion. FS1 did have World Cup programming scheduled at 1pm ET, so it's possible that Fox programmers considered the transition to another network a win-win.
Needless to say, the decision to move on from Fox to FS1 in favor of the NFL was met with ire from sports fans.
Fox ends coverage, tells people to tune into FS1 for rest of World Cup postgame. Turn there, in commercials. pic.twitter.com/BN9uyc8i0n
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) December 18, 2022
lol the world cup announcer so disgusted with moving to FS1 - "due to our NFL... obligations" what a king
— Addy Baird (@addysbaird) December 18, 2022
.@FOXSports: we "have to shift to the NFL due to obligations, please watch the WC trophy lifted on channel FS1"
— Will Saenz (@saenz_336) December 18, 2022
The link to FS1 crashed on their website. I cannot stress enough how f*cking farcical the coverage by this broadcast network has been. pic.twitter.com/xiaO2d2K5m
Booting the World Cup and Messi’s trophy ceremony to FS1 for Falcons-Saints is criminal.
— George Balekji (@GeorgeBalekji) December 18, 2022
Fox dumping to FS1 for the trophy presentation so America can see Cowboys/Jags is the cherry on top of a completely awful performance by the network at this World Cup.
— Steve Cavendish (@scavendish) December 18, 2022
The trophy presentation representing the completed career arc of one of greatest athletes of all time is getting pushed to FS1 for Week 15’s Cowboys vs. Jaguars.
— Griffin Gonzalez (@grifgonzo) December 18, 2022
Fox kicking the World Cup finals trophy ceremony to FS1 in favor of the Falcons and Saints game is as American as it gets 😭😭
— Brian Blake (@BrianOBlake) December 18, 2022
We're really about to go from watching this World Cup final to Zach Wilson
— JJ Zachariason (@LateRoundQB) December 18, 2022
