Fox Sports 1's gamble on Barstool Sports' morning show continues to look like a tough bet. "Wake Up Barstool" — the irreverent Chicago-based program featuring Dave Portnoy, Big Cat, PFT Commenter, and a rotating cast of Barstool personalities — posted another month of underwhelming TV ratings in June, and not even the World Cup could give it a lift.
According to Sports Business Journal's Austin Karp, the show averaged a paltry 19,000 viewers on FS1 in June. That's a staggeringly low number, especially when you consider Fox Sports 1 just had its most-watched week in network history, averaging 885,000 viewers across all dayparts during the week of June 15. The World Cup's halo effect — where big live events boost surrounding programming — apparently didn't extend to the 8 a.m. ET slot.
For comparison, ESPN's "Get Up!" — which airs head-to-head with "Wake Up Barstool" — averaged 426,000 viewers in the same month. That's a staggering 2,142% advantage, as noted by Awful Announcing. In other words, "Get Up" drew roughly 22 times the audience of its Barstool-backed competitor.
The numbers are especially brutal given the massive digital footprint Barstool Sports commands. The company's "Pardon My Take" podcast is one of the most downloaded sports shows in the world, and clips from "Wake Up Barstool" frequently go viral on social media. But translating that online buzz into linear TV viewers has proven to be a monumental challenge.
So what's the problem? Part of it might be the show's format. "Wake Up Barstool" leans heavily into the same unscripted, chaotic energy that makes Barstool's podcasts popular — think inside jokes, off-color humor, and a loose structure that doesn't always play well in the more polished world of morning TV. It's a vibe that works on YouTube or Spotify, but on a national cable network, it can feel like a frat house broadcast.
There's also the question of audience overlap. Barstool's core fanbase skews young and digital-first — the very demographic that's most likely to cut the cord or skip live TV altogether. Even with Fox's massive World Cup lead-in, those viewers aren't tuning in at 8 a.m. on FS1.
Football season could change the narrative. Barstool goes all-in on the NFL and college football, and "Wake Up Barstool" will likely lean heavily into game recaps, hot takes, and the kind of fan-driven content that drives engagement. Plus, Fox's Sunday NFL schedule provides a natural promotional platform. But if the show can't crack six figures during the World Cup, there's reason to wonder whether it ever will.
For now, "Wake Up Barstool" remains a curiosity — a show that thrives in the digital ecosystem but flops when measured by traditional TV ratings. Fox Sports 1 has shown patience with the experiment, but in a world where every ratings point counts, 19,000 viewers is a tough number to justify.
