College football’s defending champions gave ABC a boost in the Nielsens last weekend.
Regional college football action featuring Northern Illinois/Ohio State in 78% of markets drew 5.3 million viewers on ABC last Saturday afternoon, up 60% from Arkansas/Texas Tech last year (3.3M) and up 66% from Tennessee/Oregon in 2013 (3.2M). The rating was not immediately available.
The telecast, which included Nebraska/Miami in the remaining 22% of markets, scored the second-largest college football audience of the week — trailing only Mississippi/Alabama on ESPN (7.6M).
Reverse mirror coverage on ESPN2 drew 926,000 viewers, bringing the combined audience up to 6.2 million.
Later in the night, Stanford/USC drew a 2.2 final rating and 3.5 million viewers on ABC’s Saturday Night Football — flat in ratings and down 7% in viewership from Tennessee/Oklahoma last year (2.2, 3.8M) and down 27% in both measures from Notre Dame/Purdue in 2013 (3.0, 4.8M).
Ratings and viewership were not immediately available for the first game of ABC’s tripleheader, Air Force/Michigan State.
(Sat. numbers from ESPN, TV Media Insights)
