ABC topped the charts for last weekend’s college football action.
The Ohio State/Northwestern “Saturday Night Football” game drew a 4.4 final rating and 7.4 million viewers on ABC last Saturday, up 42% in ratings and 43% in viewership from Nebraska/Ohio State last year (3.1, 5.2M), and 22% and 30%, respectively, from Ohio State/Nebraska in 2011 (3.6, 5.6M). [For the full list of Week 6 college football ratings, click here.]
The game ranks as the #5 college football telecast of the season on any network, trailing only LSU/Georgia the previous week (4.6, 7.4M), Georgia/Clemson in week one (4.8, 8.1M), Michigan/Notre Dame in week two (5.3, 8.7M), and Alabama/Texas A&M in week three (8.5, 13.6M).
The SEC settled for second-place during week six, as Georgia/Tennessee drew a 3.5 and 5.6 million viewers on CBS — down 24% in ratings from LSU/Florida last year (4.6), but up 9% and 14%, respectively, from Florida/LSU in 2011 (3.2, 4.9M).
Rounding out the top five last week were ABC’s 3:30 PM ET regional window (2.9, 4.4M), NBC’s primetime Arizona State/Notre Dame game (2.3, 3.7M), and ESPN’s late night Washington/Stanford match-up (1.6, 2.6M).
FOX earned a mere 1.2 and 2.0 million viewers for its TCU/Oklahoma game, down 59% in ratings and 56% in viewership from West Virginia/Texas last year (2.9, 4.6M), and tied as the network’s second-lowest primetime college football rating.
The last three college football telecasts on FOX have failed to draw at least a 1.3 rating.
CBS earned the lowest college football rating of the day on broadcast, as Air Force/Navy earned a 1.0 and 1.4 million viewers. The lowest rating overall was a 0.1 for Rutgers/SMU on ESPNEWS.
(Last week’s numbers from Sports Business Daily, Son of the Bronx [1], [2])
