Taped Premier League Game Doubles Ratings For MLS Final

When David Beckham left Real Madrid five years ago for what was billed as a "million-dollar-a-week" deal with the L.A. Galaxy, he said that he had two goals: He wanted to win an MLS championship, and he wanted to use his name to help raise the league's profile.

On Sunday night, just a month before Beckham's Galaxy contract is set to expire, L.A. beat the Houston Dynamo 1-0 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. for the MLS championship. Beckham's finally got his title, but the game television ratings suggest that he hasn't quite checked off that other item yet. That's where all of this concerned talk about the Brit's American "legacy" comes from.

And it's true that Sunday's overnight ratings aren't pretty:

Fox's taped Chelsea-Liverpool soccer game Sunday afternoon drew an overnight TV rating that nearly doubled the rating for ESPN's primetime MLS Cup Sunday.

Fox's soccer got a 1.5 overnight, which translates to 1.5% of households in the 56 urban TV markets measured for overnights. ESPN's Los Angeles-Houston MLS title game, which included stars David Beckham and Landon Donovan, drew just 0.8% of households.

Beckham hasn't yet ruled out a return to the Premier League.

TV ratings: Fox's taped British soccer tops MLS title game [USA Today]