England's World Cup round of 16 match against Mexico kicks off at 1am UK time, meaning millions of fans will need to stay awake well past midnight on a weekday to watch it. The final whistle is not expected until around 3am at the earliest. If the game goes to extra time and penalties, it could run until nearly 4am.
According to a report by Yahoo Sports, the match faces an unlikely challenge: breaking the UK's largest post-midnight TV audience on record.
That record has stood for more than 40 years. It was set in the early hours of Monday, April 29, 1985, when an estimated 18.5 million people watched the deciding frame of the World Snooker Championship final on BBC2. The match, played at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, featured defending champion Steve Davis against Dennis Taylor. Originally scheduled to finish by 10:10pm, the final session ran hours over time. Taylor potted the winning ball at approximately 12:25am. The average BBC2 audience for the full session was 14.4 million, but the peak of 18.5 million at the very end remains the highest post-midnight UK TV audience since comparable ratings began in 1981, and BBC2's largest audience ever.
England's match against Mexico faces several obstacles in challenging that number. The 1am kickoff is significantly later than the snooker final's peak moment, which came just after midnight. The match falls on a weekday, not a weekend, which could limit viewership. The government has also permitted pubs to stay open until 5am for the occasion, which may draw viewers away from home screens and reduce the measured audience.
For context, the highest peak TV audience England has drawn in the current World Cup was 16.3 million, recorded during the match against DR Congo on July 1, which kicked off at 5pm. That figure was based on overnight ratings for BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Whether a 1am kickoff on a Monday morning can come close to those numbers, let alone the 18.5 million benchmark, remains to be seen when overnight ratings are published after the match.
