Nellie Andreeva

ESPN’s Wednesday morning World Cup match between the U.S. and Algeria set records as the highest-rated and most-watched soccer telecast in the history of the ESPN networks, while ESPN3.com drew the largest U.S. audience for a sports event on the Web with 1.1 million unique viewers watching the match for an average of 43 minutes.

Meanwhile, the second episode of the TV Land original sitcom Hot In Cleveland averaged 3.4 million viewers, down 29% from  the record-setting heights of the show’s premiere last week. The number is still pretty solid for TV Land.Through 40 games on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, the 2010 World Cup is averaging a 1.8 U.S. rating, up 40% from 2006. In total viewers, numbers are up 49%  to 2.7 million. The U.S. vs. Algeria World Cup match, in which the Americans scored a dramatic goal in stoppage time to earn a spot in the round of 16, delivered a record 4.0 household rating and 6.2 million viewers. Like with the previous U.S. match with Slovenia, San Diego was the top market for yesterday’s game, delivering an 8.9 rating for the event, which started at 7AM local time. How dramatic was Landon Donovan’s stoppage-time goal? Here’s how popular Spanish-language soccer announcer Andres Cantor called it on his radio broadcast:

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.