This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The MLS Cup final between Seattle and Toronto will go where it's never gone before on Saturday — to the Fox broadcast network. That's 6 p.m. on Ch. 13 here in Utah.

In theory, that's a good thing. For the first time, the game will be played in prime time (in the Eastern and Central time zones) on a Saturday night on a broadcast network. And Fox is available in virtually every one of the 118.4 million U.S. homes that have a TV (according to Nielsen).

It's the first time since 2008 that the final will air on a broadcast network, and that was on a Sunday afternoon on ABC opposite NFL games in November. Again, in theory, this can only help ratings, which have been modest at best. The past seven MLS Cup finals, all on ESPN, averaged about 800,000 viewers.

By means of comparison, this year's Stanley Cup Final (six games) averaged 4.65 million viewers; the World Series (seven games) averaged 26.1 million viewers; and the Super Bowl averaged 111.8 million viewers.

And, by the way, the most-watched MLS Cup final in the past eight years was in 2009, when an average of 1.1 million viewers tuned in to see Real Salt Lake beat the L.A. Galaxy in a shootout. And the least watched? It was RSL's shootout loss to Sporting Kansas City in 2013 — an average of 500,000 viewers.

Saturday's game on Fox is MLS' chance to shine. A good time slot on a big-time network without any NFL or college football competition. (Well, the Heisman Trophy presentation is at 6 p.m on ESPN.) There is basketball and hockey, but unless you play in the middle of the night there's always going to be some sports competition.

Real Salt Lake fans can be excused, however, if they've more or less forgotten about Major League Soccer at this point. RSL's season ended with a playoff loss on Oct. 26 — a whopping 45 days before Saturday's MLS Cup final. For the eight teams that didn't make the playoffs, their fans will have been on a 48-day break — nearly seven weeks.

Yes, the league took a break because of the international FIFA window from Nov. 7-15, but it's still ridiculous.

Add in the fact that one of the two teams playing on Saturday is Canadian, and MLS is still going to be looking up at even the NHL when it comes to TV ratings.

Scandalous statement

I've never been a Gus Johnson fan — and not just because Fox tried (and failed) to shoehorn him into a role as a soccer announcer.

And the sportscaster completely deserves the criticism he's getting for his ill-timed, inappropriate and downright offensive comments at the end of Saturday's Big Ten championship game.

As Penn State wrapped up a win over Wisconsin, Johnson said, "With all that has happened with this program regarding the sexual abuse scandal, this is a reckoning, a revival, a regeneration, a milestone in the healing process."

Winning a football game will never, under any circumstances, help anyone heal from a child sexual assault. If Johnson was suggesting that the children who were raped take any sort of joy in the win, that's downright disgusting.

What he was really saying was that the win would help the Penn State community heal, not the victims. But Johnson is confused about who needs to do the healing. Penn State was not the victim.

A championship will not allow anyone to forget what happened at Penn State. Johnson's assertion that winning the title is "a milestone in the healing process" is repugnant.

Scott D. Pierce covers television for The Salt Lake Tribune. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.