For the third time in four weeks, the SEC on CBS was was college football’s top television draw.
Last Saturday’s Alabama/Mississippi college football game drew a 3.7 final rating and 5.9 million viewers on CBS, up 6% in ratings and viewership from Georgia/Tennessee last year (3.5, 5.6M) and the top game of the weekend on any network.
An afternoon game has held the top spot in every week of the season, with the SEC on CBS topping the charts in three of the past four.
Alabama’s upset loss could not match previous regular season defeats. Last year’s loss to Auburn on Thanksgiving weekend drew an 8.2 and 13.8 million and the 2012 loss to Texas A&M drew a 6.8 and 11.3 million. Saturday’s game was unlikely to reach those levels under any circumstances, but better numbers could have been expected.
A major factor was tough head-to-head competition on the other networks — regional action on ABC featuring #1 Florida State, Notre Dame’s close win over Stanford on NBC and TCU’s upset of Oklahoma on FOX. Combined, those three games drew roughly a 5.9 and 9.2 million viewers.
(Sat. numbers from Nielsen)
