Rebecca Lowe Says World Cup Is About Making Everyone Welcome

remember who – Fox World Cup host Rebecca Lowe says the tournament’s opening day isn’t just about the biggest stars—it’s about remembering who the audience is, even as controversy swirls. Starting Mexico vs South Africa in Mexico City and moving to Los Angeles for kickoff ga

When Rebecca Lowe watched the kickoff match take the field in Mexico City, she didn’t sound overwhelmed by the scale. She sounded focused. “Wow, it’s really here,” she said on air as the tournament began—and as the World Cup comes to Los Angeles tomorrow.

“World Cups are about the stars looking to command the spotlight,” Lowe added, naming what she’s about to do for the next month and a half: steer the broadcast while the tournament builds toward the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

It’s a full assignment. Over 104 games between 48 teams across North America. Lowe will host Fox Sports’ coverage—joined live from SoFi Stadium by legends Thierry Henry. Zlatan Ibrahimović. and Alexi Lalas. Just before today’s high octane Mexico vs S.A. game. Lowe spoke with Deadline about how she’s preparing. what the first week might feel like. and who she thinks will win.

The conversation began with the opening match itself—Mexico preparing to face off against South Africa—and Lowe’s immediate focus wasn’t politics, didn’t noise. It was the room.

“The thought on opening day, I think Dominic, is to remember who this audience is.”

She described a crowd that won’t fit neatly into one category. Some people are hard-core football fans. Some are sports fans who might be there for the event. Others are watching almost by accident—“at a friend’s house on this particular moment on this particular day.” In her view. that’s not a problem to manage. It’s the starting point.

“The way that we do it on Fox [is] to impress them with everything that we’ve got in store and to show them the joy that we have covering this,” she said. The goal, she added, is to welcome people in, show the fans’ joy, and then let the football do what football always does when play starts.

That belief carries her through a tournament that has been surrounded by controversy, including anger at the Trump administration and anger at FIFA—along with outrage over what Lowe called “the exorbitant ticket prices.”

Deadline pressed her on how she takes in that geopolitical weight when the sport is about to kick off.

Lowe didn’t deny the negative energy. She simply gave it a different time horizon.

“Having done seven Olympic Games—and I did the 2006 World Cup, and I’ve done the Women’s World Cup, and I’ve done big events—there’s always a negativity going into every single big event, and it always dissipates.”

She pointed to timing. “Not saying it goes away,” she said, “but it dissipates when the first event starts with the kickoff between Mexico and South Africa.” Then, she said, the broadcast can do its job: “we just want to talk about the football.”

She also set the stakes for what viewers might feel during the opening stretch—especially with other major sports moments landing at the same time. After last night’s Knicks comeback and win in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. plus the Stanley Cup and the UFC at the White House the weekend. Deadline asked whether the World Cup could become “the sporting almost ran for the first week.”.

Lowe laughed at the phrasing. “(LAUGHS). I wish those guys luck, because I think this is going to take over.”

Then she made a point that sounded personal, built on years of watching the sport grow in the United States. She recalled saying years ago, as she began to move to America, that the country was “like a sleeping giant in the world of football.”

“One of its eyes, one of those giants’ eyes, was just starting to open,” she said. “Well, one is definitely open, and the other one is now beginning to open.”

She’s confident both will widen by the end of this World Cup.

“America now has a league they didn’t have 30 years ago. which came about from the last World Cup that was here. ” Lowe said. With social media and the internet transforming how people find and share sport since 1994. she argued. “the possibilities to move the sport in this country forward after this World Cup… are endless.”.

She described her own perspective as a decade-plus witness: “I have witnessed the rise of the game in this country in the last 13 years since I moved here.” And she called the pace “nothing short of incredible,” with this tournament arriving “at the exact right time” because the country is “ready.”

When asked whether she and her co-hosts are ready, Lowe sounded certain—and excited in a way that didn’t need performance.

“Oh, they sure are,” she said. “I can tell you, spending the last three days in their company, they are absolutely superstars, and I can’t wait to spend the next 39 days with them.”

Preparation, she admitted, is consuming in the way major events demand. “It’s very similar with an Olympic Games,” she said. In the last couple of weeks, she described her days as a constant loop: podcasts, sports radio, reading—so that when the work begins, she’s not guessing.

She credits the Fox research department, but she’s deliberate about her own process. “I have a wonderful researcher who’s with me from NBC, and she is giving me a cheat sheet every morning about all the story lines I need to know.”

Then comes the part she says she can’t skip: handwriting. “By the time I get that cheat sheet. I should already have done my own prep in my own handwriting on a piece of card that I’ll have on the desk. and it’s by doing the handwriting that the magic goes into the brain.” The cheat sheet. she added. is for reference—there when she needs it. not as a substitute.

She also expects the live broadcast to move fast, and she’s building for that reality. “If there’s rain delay. if there’s a thunder delay. a lightning delay. you’ve got to have some stuff and be willing to fill for an hour sometimes too. ” she said. “I’ve got to know everything there is to know that I can possibly hold in my brain.”.

That same seriousness, Lowe said, extends to Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović, and Alexi Lalas. She called the rehearsal process both demanding and revealing.

“I have just loved the rehearsal process,” she said. “It has allowed me to understand the way they think.” She described how learning their rhythms helps her anticipate when they’ll be ready to finish, so she can decide what to ask next and build real chemistry rather than forced flow.

She’s not a stranger to at least one of them. Lowe worked with Alexi Lalas for Euro 2012 with ESPN “all those years ago, just for a few weeks,” but she hasn’t seen him since, and she’s never worked with Henry or Ibrahimović as commentators.

Still, she called the privilege real—and the work behind it obvious. “It’s such a privilege to stand today at our position at SoFi Stadium,” she said. “All I can say is that three of them are… They’re serious about it, but they want to have fun, and they’re ready.”

The moment she seemed most incredulous about was the chance to do this alongside them. “It’s amazing,” Lowe said, before adding, “Is this real? Do I get to do this with these people?”

Then Deadline asked the question viewers ask every four years: who will raise the trophy?

Lowe’s answer came with a familiar conflict. She couldn’t separate who she wants to win from who she thinks will win.

“Well, unfortunately, I can’t actually separate who I want it to be,” she said. Her prediction: “France against England the final and England win.”

She admitted she’s trying to talk herself into it—but she also can’t deny her loyalty. “I physically cannot go against my own country. I just can’t do it.” She’s said England will win for years every World Cup cycle, and now she’s sticking with it.

She talked about the pressure too—Brits in Los Angeles, she said, aren’t walking around with England’s flags thinking “Let’s get to the quarterfinals and call it a day.”

And she pointed to something even her most critical critic can’t ignore. Lowe said Alexi Lalas, who “absolutely hates England,” believes they could win it—adding, “Yeah… gives me great joy and great heart—they could go all the way.”

For Lowe, the World Cup is arriving with all its arguments, grievances, and world-stage tension. But on opening day, in the moment right before a kickoff between Mexico and South Africa, she kept returning to one simple idea: welcome everyone in, and let the football take over.

Rebecca Lowe Fox World Cup Thierry Henry Zlatan Ibrahimović Alexi Lalas Mexico vs South Africa SoFi Stadium MetLife Stadium World Cup 2026 France England final England win