For the second straight week, ABC’s Saturday Night Football delivered nearly eight million viewers.
Saturday’s Oregon/Michigan State college football game drew a 4.8 final rating and 7.9 million viewers on ABC, up 37% in ratings and 32% in viewership from the same matchup on FOX last year (3.5, 6.0M). ABC did not air a Saturday night game on the comparable weekend last season due to NASCAR commitments.
The Spartans’ win was the third game in the first two weeks of the season to draw at least seven million viewers, a mark reached just three times in the first ten weeks last year. The two others were Ohio State/Virginia Tech on ESPN Labor Day (10.6M) and Alabama/Wisconsin on ABC the previous Saturday night (8.0M).
Head-to-head, the game easily topped Oklahoma/Tennessee on ESPN (4.1M). There was no other noteworthy competition, as none of the other major broadcast networks aired live sports Saturday night.
(Sat. numbers via TV Media Insights)
