For the sixth time in eight tries, the SEC on CBS was the top college football window of the week.
Last Saturday’s Georgia/Florida game drew a 3.7 final rating and 5.7 million viewers on CBS, up 19% in ratings and 16% in viewership from the same match-up last year (3.1, 4.9M) and the highest rated college football telecast of the week. The SEC on CBS has had the week’s top college football rating in six of the eight weeks it has been on the air.
In viewership, the game ranked second for the week behind another SEC telecast — Auburn/Mississippi on ESPN (5.8M).
Overall, an SEC team has been featured in the week’s top college football window in seven of ten weeks this season. The only exceptions have been week two (USC/Stanford on ABC), week five (regional coverage on ABC featuring FSU/N.C. State), and week eight (Notre Dame/FSU on ABC).
Head-to-head, the Gators’ win finished comfortably ahead of ABC’s regional window, which featured TCU/West Virginia in 77% of markets (2.7, 4.4M). The TCU/West Virginia game was the site of ESPN’s College Gameday.
Later Saturday, CBS drew a 2.3 and 3.9 million for Notre Dame’s win over Navy, the network’s first non-SEC primetime game in several years. Notre Dame/Navy topped ABC’s Saturday Night Football (2.1, 3.6M) and Stanford/Oregon on FOX (1.5, 2.5M).
Rounding out the unusual CBS tripleheader, Air Force/Army drew a 1.1 and 1.7 million. Last year’s comparable service academy game on CBS, Air Force/Navy in week six, drew a 1.0 and 1.4 million.
(Last week’s numbers from Sports Business Daily)
