ESPN and Fox Sports 1 put up strong numbers for college football action on Saturday.
The Texas A&M/Mississippi college football game earned a 3.4 overnight rating on ESPN Saturday night, actually down 8% from South Carolina/LSU in an earlier timeslot last year (3.7), but the network’s top overnight since week two of the season.
Overall, the 3.4 is the fourth-highest of the season for college football on ESPN, trailing only the network’s week two tripleheader of Florida/Miami (3.7), Georgia/South Carolina (4.8) and Notre Dame/Michigan (5.6).
Earlier in the day, ESPN earned a 2.6 overnight for the quadruple-overtime Michigan/Penn State game and a 2.4 for Missouri’s upset of Georgia.
In other cable action, the Oregon/Washington game earned a 1.3 overnight on Fox Sports 1 — easily the network’s highest college football overnight. Oregon/Washington topped the Baylor/Kansas State game on FOX (1.0) head-to-head.
While the cable networks did well on Saturday, broadcast was still the top dog.
ABC topped the weekend with the Texas/Oklahoma “Red River Rivalry” game, which earned a 3.7 overnight — up 6% from the same match-up last year (3.7), but the second-worst overnight for the rivalry game since 2006. The network’s regional window later in the day drew a 2.5, down 17% from last year (3.0), and down 39% from 2011 (4.1).
Meanwhile, CBS scored a 3.4 for the Florida/LSU game — up 55% from Alabama/Missouri last year (2.2), and up 21% from LSU/Tennessee in 2011 (2.8).
(Week 6 overnights from Sports Business Daily)
