Fox is paying fans $50k to watch the entire World Cup from a Times Square box

Kevin Kotoko got the call on a Thursday. Fox wanted him to watch all 104 World Cup matches. For money. Fifty grand, to be exact.

By Friday, he'd quit his job as a waiter in Florida.

Look, most people would probably hesitate before ditching steady income for what sounds like a Truman Show setup — and honestly, that's basically what this is. Kotoko, who bleeds Liverpool red, will be planted in a custom-built viewing cube smack in the middle of Times Square, watching every single game unfold while the rest of New York shuffles past. It's the kind of gig that sounds either brilliant or genuinely unhinged, depending on who you ask.

Fox apparently decided that having fans actually watch the tournament — really watch it, committed to every match, no skipping the group stage games nobody cares about — was worth bankrolling. So they hired people. Lots of them. All stationed in this glass box in Manhattan's most chaotic intersection, basically living in a fishbowl for the duration of the tournament.

Kotoko's not alone in taking the deal. Other fans signed on too, including an influencer who presumably has a different relationship with public spectacle than your average football supporter. The whole thing feels like a social experiment where Fox gets real-time reactions to every goal, upset, and penalty kick, packaged as entertainment for anyone walking by.

The gimmick's actually clever, in a weird way. You're getting paid to do what you'd probably do anyway — sit and watch football. Except now there's a camera pointed at you, thousands of people watching through a glass wall, and the pressure of knowing you can't just peace out halfway through a boring match.

Kotoko's already committed though. He saw $50,000, he saw 104 games of pure football, and he made his choice. Whatever happens next — whether he loves every second or goes slightly mad by game 87 — at least he'll have done it with a paycheck and a story that'll never get old.