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20 million watch final USA World Cup match
July 2nd, 2014
07:00 PM ET

20 million watch final USA World Cup match

By Brian Stelter, CNN

USA-Belgium, what turned out to be the last American match in the 2014 World Cup, was watched by upwards of 20 million viewers at home and countless more at watch parties in stadiums and other public places across the country.

Nielsen ratings released on Wednesday showed that ESPN's telecast of the match averaged 16.5 million viewers in the United States, which was second only to the USA-Portugal match on June 22. That earlier match holds the distinction of being the most-watched men's soccer match in the United States ever.

Univision's Spanish-language telecast of USA-Belgium averaged 5.1 million viewers.

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Filed under: Nielsen ratings • World Cup
What we're reading this week...
February 22nd, 2013
06:28 PM ET

What we're reading this week...

By Becky Perlow, CNN 

We know Sunday is only two days away, but if you're itching for some great news until then, here are some of the other stories the Reliable Sources team has been reading about:

Insulting a princess: During a recent lecture at the British Museum, English writer Hilary Mantel shared her worries that the Duchess of Cambridge was becoming "a jointed doll on which certain rags are hung" and that she "seems to have been selected for her role of princess because she was irreproachable: as painfully thin as anyone could wish, without quirks, without oddities, without the risk of the emergence of character." Newspapers across the country instantly jumped to the royal's defense, with Prime Minister David Cameron weighing in as well. But is the criticism of Mantel fair? One Guardian reporter says it's worth taking a deeper look at the "lazy journalism" and "raging hypocrisy." She asks, for instance, "what has any paper done with Kate for the past decade but use her as decorative page filler?"

Why producers pre-tape: Every executive producer will tell you that the live interview is always better, but what about when your reporter passes out? Turns out the live segment makes for funny (or scary) TV, as when Australian weatherman Grant Denyer lost consciousness while reporting live from the cockpit of a stunt plane. Warning: this video is not for the faint of heart.

Nielsen adjusts ratings: With viewers trading in their traditional TV for web-based content, media executives are growing increasingly concerned with the fall of ratings (and ultimately, the fall of advertising sales). Nielsen stepped in to save the day, though, promising to consider people who "have a television set hooked up to the Internet, as 'television households.'" It doesn't seem like the new rule will have much affect right now as only 0.6% of households meet this new requirement, but as more homes incorporate tablet computers and internet streaming on their TVs, there's no doubt the media executives will be sleeping more soundly at night.

The re-invented resume: There's no shame in using every social media tool available to score a new job, but one journalist took it to new heights with the use of Vine, a six-second video sharing tool. Former political director for Fox News Radio, Dawn Siff created a "Vine resume" that promoted some of her best assets, from "idea machine" to "deadline Jedi."

So would you hire someone from a "Vine resume?" And what are you reading this week? Tell us in the comments below.