A stirring finish in the SEC topped the charts during week twelve of the college football season.
Last Saturday’s Georgia/Auburn college football game drew a 3.4 final rating and 5.3 million viewers on CBS, the highest rated and most-viewed game of the week. Last year’s comparable numbers were not available.
An SEC team has been involved in the highest rated and most-viewed game of the week seven times this season — Georgia/Clemson topped the charts in week one (4.8, 8.1M), followed by Alabama/Texas A&M in week three (8.5, 13.6M), LSU/Georgia in week five (4.6, 7.4M), Texas A&M/Mississippi in week seven (3.2, 5.1M), Auburn/Texas A&M in week eight (4.2, 6.7M), and LSU/Alabama in week eleven (6.9, 11.9M). Tennessee/Alabama in week nine was the highest rated game of the week (2.6), but only the second-most viewed (4.0M).
Ranking second for the week was the Stanford/USC “Saturday Night Football” game, which earned a 3.2 final rating and 5.0 million viewers — down 37% in ratings and 40% in viewership from Stanford/Oregon last year (5.1, 8.3M), and down 48% and 49%, respectively, from regional action in 2011 (6.1, 9.7M).
ABC’s afternoon regional window, featuring Michigan State/Nebraska or Syracuse/Florida State, drew a 2.8 and 4.4 million viewers — down 10% in ratings and 9% in viewership from regional action last year (3.1, 4.9M), and down 38% and 35%, respectively, from regional action in 2011 (4.5, 6.8M). Reverse mirror coverage on ESPN2 earned a 0.6 and 798,000.
Rounding out the top five were a pair of games on cable. The Alabama/Mississippi State game drew a 2.7 U.S. rating and 4.5 million viewers on ESPN, up 29% in ratings and 36% in viewership from Kansas State/Baylor last year (2.1, 3.3M). Meanwhile, the Noon ET Ohio State/Illinois game drew a 2.1 and 2.9 million — up 17% and 12%, respectively, from Iowa/Michigan last year (1.8, 2.6M).
Outside of the top ten, FOX drew a 1.8 and 3.1 million viewers for the Texas Tech/Baylor game, down 14% in ratings and 5% in viewership from Oklahoma/West Virginia last year (2.1, 3.2M). The network’s early Oklahoma State/Texas game drew a 1.4 and just under 2.2 million.
The week’s top game on Fox Sports 1 was Utah/Oregon, which earned a 0.4 and 747,000 viewers. By comparison, the top game on ESPNU — Miami/Duke at virtually the same time — drew a 0.4 and 634,000.
(Week twelve finals from Nielsen, Son of the Bronx [1], [2])
