If you were to ask a typical British soccer fan what they think is the most influential soccer show in the English language, they’d probably respond with either Match of the Day on the BBC or Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football.
But speak to someone younger or supporters outside the UK and the answer might well be CBS’s Uefa Champions League studio show.
Since its debut in 2020, ‘Champions League Today’ has transformed perceptions of Uefa’s elite club soccer competition in the US and television coverage of the sport in the country. But, perhaps more significantly, its popularity transcends America’s borders.
Despite rights restrictions that prevent CBS from sharing any match action, Champions League Today is a viral hit on social media around the world. Clips are widely shared, generating more than five billion views last season alone.
The secret to the show’s success is how it blends serious analysis with various degrees of humour and absurdity. Anchor Kate Scott is an experienced presenter, Thierry Henry is an icon of the game, while Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards are hugely successful former professionals who regularly appear on Sky Sports or the BBC.
You’re just as likely to see Richards struggle contain his laughter at Ligue 1 club Brest as you are to hear tactical insight. And that’s why it works.
Making the Champions League work in America
For decades, soccer was an afterthought in the US broadcast market, used to fill schedule gaps or siloed away onto niche subscription channels for enthusiasts. But the sport’s growing popularity in the US has increased demand for live rights, particularly among streaming platforms who value the sport’s typically younger fanbase and want large amounts of inventory.
The Champions League, however, has been a harder sell because matches take place on weekday afternoons when most people are work, limiting the available audience. ESPN and Fox took turns before TNT Sports made a shock US$60 million swoop for the rights in 2017. But it too failed to make a success of it, lacking a comprehensive streaming offering and receiving criticisms for its presentation.
TNT locked matches away behind a series of paywalls, hired National Basketball Association (NBA) star Steve Nash as a pundit, and accidentally used BT Sport’s commentators instead of the world audio feed during the 2019 final.
Due to financial pressure caused by Covid-19, TNT opted out of its contract in 2020, allowing Paramount-owned CBS, which had already agreed to take over from 2021/22, to step in and fill the void.
It initially hosted coverage from CBS Sports HQ in New York – partly because of the short notice it received and partly because of lockdown restrictions – but behind the scenes it was putting together what would become Champions League Today.
This gift from @SB29 for @MicahRichards hits on so many levels 😭 pic.twitter.com/Sj7tHtcqFP
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) January 22, 2025
The opportunity of a career
For Pete Radovich, the coordinating producer of the UEFA Champions League coverage on CBS Sports, and winner of 41 Emmy awards, it was the opportunity he had waited his entire career for.
“I’m the son of two immigrants from Croatia and I grew up with soccer,” he told the Leaders week sports business conference. “I played it my whole life, but I never worked on it. And then five years ago there were rumours we were going to get the [Uefa] Champions League and it’s been my baby ever since.”
From the outset, Radovich knew he wanted do something different. CBS’s parent company Paramount hoped the Champions League would act as the crown jewel of its soccer portfolio and drive subscriptions for its Paramount+ subscription service. But the contract also guaranteed clashes between the best teams in Europe, something that could also generate interest from viewers and advertisers on CBS’s flagship network.
To do that, Radovich set out to create a show that treated the sport with respect but was entertaining enough that non-soccer fans would be interested in watching. Inside the NBA, TNT Sports’ widely acclaimed studio-based basketball show, was an obvious inspiration.
Basing the show in the UK was also crucial given it would enable on-site broadcasts and it to attract more guests. Scott, who hosted TNT’s coverage, was retained but Radovich also wanted to use talent who was relatively unknown to American audiences, like Carragher who was asked to be “less scouse” during pandemic-era planning meetings on videoconference.
“We asked ourselves ‘Are we going to do a traditional sports program around this or are we going to make some noise?’” Radovich continued. “We got lucky. We got the right crew together. We got the right chemistry. We just did some things that were good at the beginning, and people started paying attention. We started going viral. People started talking about our show. Next thing you know, people are more aware of the games.”
Agenda setting programming
The Premier League remains the biggest soccer property on US television, but the Champions League is almost certainly the second. It’s one of the most valuable acquisition tools for Paramount+ and the biggest matches attract more than a million viewers on CBS. The final itself is watched by anything up to 2.8 million.
CBS’s approach is clearly paying off.
It’s no wonder that CBS has extended its contract for another six years, paying US$250 million a season – the same amount that Apple is paying for the global rights to Major League Soccer (MLS) and more than what it is paying for the US rights to Formula One.
However, the influence of Champions League Today has been far reaching. Soccer broadcasters in the US have long looked to the UK for inspiration but the knowledge exchange is starting to reverse.
“Jamie [Carragher] and Micah [Richards] are getting lots of questions from their UK broadcasters like ‘How can we be more like CBS?’ That’s all I’ll say,” said Radovich.
It would once have been unthinkable for a US soccer show to set the agenda in such a way.
Radovich, who stressed his admiration for British sports broadcasting and the documentaries produced by UK production companies, revels in this shifting landscape, arguing his show has no equal.
“We’re crushing everyone and everyone’s chasing,” he said. “The fact we are able to take a European sport and make the biggest [soccer show] around the world … its impossible. It would be like England having an NFL show that everyone in America was envious of.
“But we did it because we took chances and we did out our way.
“This is the thing I am most proud of in my career.”
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