The SEC Championship Game was a bigger attraction than the Daytona 500, every game of the NBA Finals, and the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship Game.
Last Saturday’s Alabama/Florida game drew an 11.1/23 final rating and 18.0 million viewers on CBS, up 18% and 19%, respectively, from last year’s matchup between the same two teams (9.4/20, 15.1 mil).
The 11.1 rating is the highest in the history of the SEC Championship Game, topping the previous record of 10.5 set in 1994 by another Alabama/Florida game.
Alabama/Florida stands as the highest rated, most-viewed regular season college football game since Michigan/Ohio State in ’06 (13.0/28, 21.0 mil).
To put the numbers in perspective, the SEC Championship Game drew more viewers than the Daytona 500 (16 million), every game of the NBA Finals (average of 14.3 million, with the top game drawing 16 million), the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship Game (17.6 million), the race portion of the Kentucky Derby (16.3 million), the final round of The Masters (14.3 million), and two World Series games.
Most-viewed non-NFL sporting events of 2009
|
Date
|
Net | Sport | Game |
Viewers (000)
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
Thu., 1/8/09
|
FOX | NCAAF | BCS Nat’l Championship, Oklahoma/Florida |
26,767
|
|
2
|
Sun., 11/1/09
|
FOX | MLB | World Series, Yankees/Phillies G4 |
22,761
|
|
3
|
Wed., 11/4/09
|
FOX | MLB | World Series, Phillies/Yankees G6 |
22,339
|
|
4
|
Thu., 1/1/09
|
ABC | NCAAF | Rose Bowl, Penn St./USC |
20,603
|
|
5
|
Wed., 10/28/09
|
FOX | MLB | World Series, Phillies/Yankees G1 |
19,511
|
|
6
|
Thu., 10/29/09
|
FOX | MLB | World Series, Phillies/Yankees G2 |
18,897
|
|
7
|
Sat., 12/5/09
|
CBS | NCAAF | SEC Championship Game, Alabama/Florida |
17,969
|
|
8
|
Mon., 4/6/09
|
CBS | NCAAB | NCAA Men’s Basketball Nat’l Championship Game, North Carolina/Mich. St. |
17,649
|
|
9
|
Mon., 11/2/09
|
FOX | MLB | World Series, Yankees/Phillies G5 |
17,092
|
|
10
|
Mon., 1/5/09
|
FOX | NCAAF | Fiesta Bowl, Texas/Ohio State |
17,056
|
