Rebecca Lowe Will Steer Fox’s 104-Game World Cup Run
“Wow, it’s really here,” rebecca lowe said as the kickoff match was about to start in Mexico City, and the Fox World Cup host is now steering coverage of 104 games across 48 teams in North America. Her comments came on opening day, with the tournament set to reach Los Angeles the next day and run through the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Mexico City Opening Day
“This is a really interesting tournament. It’s diverse,” Lowe said in an interview on opening day. She said she wanted to welcome a diverse audience into the coverage and to remember who that audience is when the first match is on the air.
“I think two things to answer that,” she said when asked about the controversy around the tournament. Lowe pointed to anger at the Trump administration, anger at FIFA and anger over exorbitant ticket prices, then added that negativity always goes into every big event and always dissipates when the first event starts.
Fox’s 104-Game Schedule
Fox’s plan puts Lowe at the center of on-air soccer coverage for the next month and a half, a stretch that also includes a live lineup from SoFi Stadium with Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Alexi Lalas. The scale alone is the story here: 104 matches, 48 teams and a final in New Jersey, all under one broadcast umbrella.
Lowe said she had done seven Olympic Games and the 2006 World Cup, experience that explains why Fox put her in front of a tournament this large. “I wish those guys luck, because I think this is going to take over,” she said when asked if the World Cup risked being overshadowed by other sports events.
July 19 at MetLife
“I said years ago, as I began to think about moving to America, that this country was like a sleeping giant in the world of football,” Lowe said. That is the bet behind Fox’s approach: a broad audience, a controversial build-up and a schedule that ends with the final at MetLife Stadium on July 19.
She also said the football would take over once kickoff happened between Mexico and South Africa. If that holds, Fox’s best move is simple: let the matches do the work while Lowe keeps the broadcast broad enough for the diverse audience she says she wants in the room.
