The debut of David Beckham in Major League Soccer drew a 1.2 overnight rating on ESPN Saturday night. “If the rating holds“, the exhibition match between Chelsea FC and the L.A. Galaxy will be the highest rated MLS telecast in ESPN history. The previous highest rated game was a 1.0 for ESPN’s first ever MLS telecast.
To put in perspective how high the rating is in relation to MLS, Thursday night telecasts on ESPN2 have been averaging a 0.2 rating so far this season, meaning Beckham accounted for a 500% increase in ratings. The 1.2 is also 50% higher than the 0.8 overnight ABC drew for the 2006 MLS Cup.
Despite the relatively high rating, Beckham’s first game still fell behind another much hyped debut. In 2004, Freddy Adu‘s debut with DC United drew a 1.3/4 on ABC.
