ESPN scored its largest college football audience of the season — twice — last week.
Last Saturday’s Auburn/Mississippi game drew a 3.4 final rating and 5.8 million viewers on ESPN, up 143% in ratings and 154% in viewership from Tennessee/Missouri last year (1.4, 2.3M) and the top college football telecast of the season on ESPN. Just two days earlier, FSU/Louisville tied and set the previous highs with a 3.1 and 5.0 million, respectively.
Auburn/Mississippi was the most-watched game of week ten, edging Georgia/Florida on CBS (5.7M). It trailed the CBS game in ratings (3.7). Head-to-head, the game finished comfortably ahead of Notre Dame/Navy on CBS (2.3, 3.9M), Saturday Night Football on ABC (2.1, 3.6M) and Stanford/Oregon on FOX (1.5, 2.5M).
The Arizona/UCLA nightcap drew a 1.7 and 2.6 million. There were no comparable games last year or in 2012.
In other week ten action, the Noon ET Wisconsin/Rutgers game drew a 1.4 and 1.9 million — flat in ratings and down 4% in viewership from Illinois/Penn State in 2012 (1.4, 2.0M) and up 8% and 1%, respectively, from Texas A&M/Mississippi in 2012 (1.3, 1.9M).
ESPN2’s top game was Arkansas/Mississippi State in primetime, with a 1.4 and 2.3 million — up 40% in ratings and 36% in viewership from Auburn/Arkansas in an earlier timeslot last year (1.0, 1.7M) and up 367% and 355%, respectively, from Clemson/Duke in 2012 (0.3, 505K). Duke/Pittsburgh topped the charts on ESPNU with a 0.6 and 863,000, up 200% and 161%, respectively, from Army/Air Force in 2012 (0.2, 331K).
(Last week’s numbers from Sports Business Daily, Awful Announcing)
