ESPN’s secondary channels pulled in some of their best college football numbers of the season last weekend.
Last Saturday’s Florida State/Georgia Tech college football game had 1.9 million viewers on ESPN2, up 67% from Georgia/Missouri last year (1.2M) but down 25% from LSU/Mississippi in 2013 (2.6M). Viewership peaked at 3.4 million from 10 PM ET to the conclusion, when the Yellow Jackets ran back a blocked field goal for the game-winning touchdown as time expired.
It scored the third-largest audience on ESPN2 this season, trailing only Arkansas/Tennessee in week five (2.3M) and Mississippi State/Auburn in week four (2.2M).
Airing concurrently on ESPNU, Western Kentucky/LSU earned 1.2 million — up 171% from Georgia Tech/North Carolina last year (461K), up 464% from Iowa State/Baylor in 2013 (221K), and the network’s top college football audience since 2012. Its previous high this season was 844,000 for Western Carolina/Tennessee in week three.
Neither game could match Mississippi/Texas A&M on ESPN, which drew 2.8 million viewers — up 3% from Tennessee/Mississippi last year (2.7M) and up 19% from Arkansas/Alabama in 2013 (2.3M). Mississippi’s blowout win was the top game of the week on cable, but trailed Utah/USC on FOX (3.3M) and Ohio State/Rutgers on ABC (5.3M) head-to-head.
The Washington/Stanford nightcap ranked second on cable with a 1.4 final rating and 2.1 million viewers, up 56% in ratings and 60% in viewership from Stanford/Arizona State last year (0.9, 1.3M). There was no comparable game in 2013.
Shifting to the afternoon, ESPN drew 1.6 million for Iowa State/Baylor and 1.5 million for Penn State/Maryland — down 51% and 30%, respectively, from Kansas State/Oklahoma (3.4M) and Michigan State/Indiana (2.2M) in the comparable windows last year.
(Wknd. numbers from ESPN, Sports TV Ratings, TV Media Insights)
