Notre Dame football was far from a marquee attraction on Saturday night.
NBC drew a 1.4/3 final rating and 2.3 million viewers for Washington State/Notre Dame in primetime Saturday night. There was no comparable primetime telecast last year.
The 1.4 rating is the second-lowest of the season for a Notre Dame telecast on NBC, and is tied as the third-lowest for a Notre Dame game on the network since ’07. Only Nevada/Notre Dame earlier this season (1.3) and Duke/Notre Dame in ’07 (1.2) drew lower ratings over the past three seasons.
While Washington State/Notre Dame avoided setting a record low on NBC, the game still drew “the lowest rating of any [primetime] show on the four major broadcast networks last week.”
Not surprisingly, the game was easily defeated by Game 3 of the World Series on FOX. Even a 15-minute repeat of The Cleveland Show during a World Series rain delay managed to double the viewership of Washington State/Notre Dame — though much of that can be attributed to viewers waiting for the rain delay to end.
Ratings and viewership for Saturday Night Football on ABC were not immediately available, but regional coverage featuring Texas/Oklahoma State and USC/Oregon likely trounced Washington State/Notre Dame.
NBC drew better numbers for football on Sunday night, even though Sunday Night Football had the week off. Football Night in America, which led into the movie National Treasure, drew 3 million viewers on Sunday night.
Sources: The Futon Critic, USA Today
