A pair of high-profile Thursday night games boosted ESPN and Fox Sports 1 last week, but Saturday’s primetime edition of the “SEC on CBS” was the top draw.
CBS drew a 6.9 final rating and 11.9 million viewers for Saturday’s LSU/Alabama game, up a tick in ratings and 5% in viewership from last year’s primetime game on the network, which featured the same two teams (6.8, 11.3M). The game earned the second-highest rating and viewership of the season for college football on any network, trailing only Alabama/Texas A&M in week three (8.5, 13.6M).
Three of the five highest rated and most-viewed college football games this season have included an SEC team: Alabama/Texas A&M, LSU/Alabama, and Georgia/Clemson on ABC in week one (4.8, 8.1M). The non-SEC games were Michigan/Notre Dame on ESPN in week two (5.3, 8.7M) and Miami/Florida State in week ten (5.1, 8.4M).
Ranking second for the week was the Thursday night Oregon/Stanford game, which earned a 3.6 and 5.7 million on ESPN — up 112% in ratings and 114% in viewership from Florida State/Virginia Tech last year (1.7, 2.7M), and the top Thursday night game since LSU/Mississippi State in September 2011 (4.1, 6.3M).
ABC’s Saturday afternoon Nebraska/Michigan game ranked third, with a 3.1 and 4.8 million viewers — up 41% in ratings and 37% in viewership from regional action last year (2.2, 3.5M), but down 11% and 14%, respectively, from regional action in 2011 (3.5, 5.5M). Nebraska/Michigan edged Mississippi State/Texas A&M head-to-head, which ranked fourth for the week with a 2.9 and 4.5 million.
The network’s Notre Dame/Pittsburgh “Saturday Night Football” game rounded out the top five with a 2.0 rating and 3.0 million viewers, down 44% in ratings and 47% in viewership from Notre Dame/Boston College last year (3.6, 5.8M), but down 63% and 65%, respectively, from Oregon/Stanford in 2011 (5.4, 8.7M).
In other week eleven action, FOX brought up the rear yet again with its doubleheader. The network’s primetime Texas/West Virginia game drew a 1.5 and 2.6 million viewers, down 21% in ratings and 12% in viewership from Kansas State/TCU last year (1.9, 3.0M). Meanwhile, the USC/Cal afternoon game drew a 0.7 and 1.0 million viewers — the lowest rated and least-viewed college football telecast of the season on broadcast.
Meanwhile, Fox Sports 1 earned a record audience for the Thursday night Oklahoma/Baylor game. Despite airing opposite Stanford/Oregon on ESPN, Oklahoma/Baylor drew 2.1 million viewers — the largest audience since the network rebranded from Speed Channel in August. The network’s previous high for any program was 1.78 million for a UFC telecast in August, and the previous college football high was 1.77 million for Oregon/Washington in October.
(Week 11 numbers from Nielsen, Bloomberg/Media Life Magazine, Fox Sports)
