Euro 2012, the European soccer tournament being hosted by Poland and Ukraine, continues to show big-event soccer can be a solid U.S. TV draw.

Consider that the Italy-England quarterfinal broadcast on ESPN Sunday afternoon drew a 2.4 overnight rating, translating to 2.4% of households in the 56 urban markets measured for overnights. That's up 50% from comparable coverage of a Spain-Italy game when the quadrennial tournament was held in 2008.

But that big international Italy-England lead-in didn't do much for ESPN's coverage of the MLS Portland-Seattle soccer game followed – it drew a 0.6 overnight rating.

The Italy-England 2.4 overnight put soccer close to the rarified air of ESPN's New York Yankees-Mets game, which in Sunday prime time – TV's most-watched night – drew a 2.7 overnight. That was up 93% from comparable coverage of a Cleveland-San Francisco game last year. Fox had Yankees-Mets as its main game Saturday night and used it to have Charlie Sheen drop by the broadcast booth to hype his upcoming Fox FX sitcom. Sheen got decent exposure – the regionalized coverage drew a 3.2 overnight, up 88% from last year's regionalized coverage.

Spice rack: NFL Network is making a big move into morning TV. ... NASCAR's Richard Childress puts his Montana ranch on sale for $10 million. ... CBS is getting into sports radio. ... ESPN is expected to use Chris Berman to call NFL action – for one regular-season game.