You know, they pretty much just put them in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events.

If you don't subscribe to Setanta TV (and I understand there are only about 60,000 of us in the US, which is probably why it’s going under at the end of February), then you probably missed Special 1 TV (formerly I’m on Setanta Sports). The show consisted of a hand puppet that was supposed to represent Jose Mourinho, the current Inter Milan and former Chelsea manager, who famously proclaimed during his introductory press conference at Chelsea, “I am a special one” (thus the name). The show was quite funny at times, as it skewered almost everyone involved in English football, as well as many others (including, with hilarious results, David Beckham and Tom Cruise). Special 1 TV went off the air last summer when Setanta UK went under, but he keeps a Twitter feed going, and it’s quite humorous. Last week he had a list of the 10 most viewed sporting events (in the entire world) for 2009. The list was really surprising to me on a few different levels, and I thought I’d share it here. (Note: I have no idea how accurate his data is, and I didn’t feel like researching it, so I’m just going with what he said.) Sit back and await to be amazed.

Top 10 most viewed sporting events in the world, 2009.

10. Surdirman Cup Final, South Korea v China – 56 million viewers.
What is the Surdirman Cup? Well, it’s the World Mixed Team Badminton Championships. Yes, that’s right: Badminton pulled in 56 million viewers last year.

9. US Masters Final Day – 58 million viewers.
A cursory search found that around 17 million viewers (give or take) watched the Masters in the US, which means over 40 million watched elsewhere in the world. Considering that Angel Cabrera won in a sudden death playoff, I’d guess that most of those TVs were from Argentina.

8. NBA Finals Game 5 LA Lakers v Orlando Magic – 59 Million viewers.
59 million viewers for Game 5 to see the Lakers win the championship seemed like a ton to me; however, I’m guessing a few things: 1) It wasn’t shown live to much of Europe or Asia, so 2) People knew that this was the DECIDING game before they had to watch, leading to 3) the largest audience for the series. But that’s just a guess.

7. MLB World Series Game 6 Phillies v Yankees – 72 million viewers.
As with Basketball, the deciding game of the World Series was the only game to make the list, leading me to believe that, like the NBA, it was shown on tape delay to most people, and they knew this was the final game. What’s interesting about this is that Game 6 wasn’t even the highest watched game in the United States: According to Wikipedia (so it must be true) Game 6 garnered 22.3 million viewers in the states, behind Game 4’s 22.8 million. This lends credence to my theory that a lot of countries only showed the deciding game on tape delay.

6. World Baseball Classic Final - Japan v South Korea – 82 million viewers.
A South Korea event makes its 2nd appearance in the top 10. I would almost think that this one would have been higher on the list, considering how crazy the Japanese are about baseball, and how huge getting to the finals it was for South Korea.

5. Wimbledon Tennis Championship Men’s Final - Federer v Roddick – 89 million viewers.
Very surprised at this one, but tennis must be huge outside the US.

4. IAAF World Athletic Championships Men’s 100 Metres Final – 95 million viewers.
There’s really only one reason why this is so high on the list – Usain Bolt. The man obliterated his own 100 meter record by running a blistering 9.58 seconds in the 100 meters. Bolt has always been a much bigger star outside the US than in; in fact, many sports outlets called Bolt the star of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, not 8-time Gold medal winner Michael Phelps.

3. FIA Formula 1 World Championship Bahrain Grand Prix – 115 million viewers.
Umm….I’m having a hard time with this one. I mean, I know Formula One is very popular everywhere in the world but the US, but why this specific race? The podium winners were: 1st-Jenson Button; 2nd-Sebastian Vettel; 3rd-Jarno Trulli. Who? Exactly. Maybe because it was in Bahrain? I am really lost on this one.

2-NFL Super Bowl XLIII Pittsburgh Steelers v Arizona Cardinals – 162 million viewers.
The only surprise here is that this isn’t #1, I guess. The US viewership was around 98 million, so the Super Bowl is definitely a large draw all around the world. (Note: I just read that the 2010 Super Bowl that just happened was the most watched program in US history, beating the last episode of M*A*S*H, with over 106 million viewers in the US.)

1-UEFA Champions League Final Barcelona v Manchester United – 206 million viewers.
As the Special One would say, “But of course!”. Based on spotty research, I believe this match was watched by 1.43 million people in the USA. You might think that’s tiny, but it was actually the most watched UEFA soccer game in the US. This is always the biggest club championship every year, and considering that stars from each team hail from countries as varied as England, Portugal, Argentina, Cameroon, France, and Spain, it can’t be surprising that it would have such a huge appeal. Also: Everyone was happy that Man United didn’t win.

One final note: there is one noticeable absence to this list: The 2010 World Cup Draw that took place in December 2009. The draw was reportedly viewed (live, I might add) by over 250 million people worldwide. However, I assume that this really wasn’t a sporting event (and many would call it a complete non-event to begin with), that’s why it’s not on the list. Oh, and the viewing estimate for the World Cup final in July 2010? Over 1 billion worldwide. Take that, Super Bowl.