Despite the presence of two high-profile college football teams, FOX could not avoid a decline in ratings and viewership last Saturday night.
The UCLA/Texas college football game drew a 1.6 final rating and 2.6 million viewers on FOX last Saturday night, down 20% in ratings and 19% in viewership from Ohio State/Cal last year (2.0, 3.3M) and down 36% and 31%, respectively, from USC/Stanford in 2012 (2.5, 3.9M).
The game was outdrawn head-to-head by both Tennessee/Oklahoma on ABC (2.2, 3.8M) and Purdue/Notre Dame on NBC (1.9, 3.1M). It was, however, able to top USC/Boston College on ESPN (1.1, 1.7M).
The early Illinois/Washington game drew a mere 0.7 and 1.0 million viewers, easily the lowest rating of the young season for college football on broadcast TV. There was no comparable afternoon window last year. In most markets, the start of the game was preempted by Major League Baseball coverage.
Shifting to Fox Sports 1, Minnesota/TCU was Saturday’s top draw with a 0.2 and 283,000 viewers. By comparison, each of last year’s three Saturday games topped the 300,000 viewer mark.
(Sat. numbers from Sports Business Daily, with additional info from Awful Announcing)
