No doubt helped by an exciting finish to the Notre Dame/Michigan State game, regional college football action scored for ABC Saturday night.
Saturday Night Football, featuring Texas/Texas Tech in most markets, drew a 4.9 overnight rating on ABC Saturday night — up 14% from a national Texas Tech/Texas game last year (4.3) but down 42% from Ohio State/USC two years ago (8.4).
The 4.9 overnight is easily the highest of the season for college football on ABC, and the highest of the season for any college football game on broadcast — topping the previous high set by Michigan/Notre Dame on NBC last week (4.5).
The current season high on broadcast or cable is the 6.8 overnight Boise State/Virginia Tech drew on ESPN September 6.
Earlier Saturday, regional action featuring Nebraska/Washington drew a 2.6 overnight, down 21% from last year (USC/Washington*: 3.3), but up 8% from 2008 (Oregon/Purdue*: 2.4).
Four of the five college football games on ABC this season have drawn less than a 3.0 overnight. To put that in perspective, none of the first five games last year drew less than a 3.0.
Asterisk (*) indicates featured game of window.
