The SEC was the bright spot of a soft college football Saturday on ESPN.
Saturday’s Arkansas/LSU college football game earned a 2.2 final rating and 3.6 million viewers on ESPN, up 83% in ratings and 91% in viewership from Virginia/Florida State last year (1.2, 1.9M) and up 83% and 82%, respectively, from Virginia Tech/Miami in 2013 (1.2, 2.0M).
The Razorbacks’ upset win was the highest rated and most-watched college football game of the week on cable, the seventh time in 11 weeks that the SEC has topped the charts. It was also the only game of ESPN’s quadrupleheader to avoid a decline in viewership.
The Washington State/UCLA nightcap earned a 1.3 and 1.9 million, down 19% in ratings and 29% in viewership from Oregon/Utah last year (1.6, 2.7M) but up 30% and 27%, respectively, from UCLA/Arizona in 2013 (1.0, 1.5M).
Shifting to the afternoon, Florida/South Carolina scored 1.7 million viewers in the Noon ET window — down 37% from both Georgia/Kentucky last year (2.74M) and Auburn/Tennessee in 2013 (2.77M). Oklahoma State/Iowa State also scored 1.7 million, down 20% from BYU/Wisconsin in 2013 (2.2M); there was no comparable window last year.
Elsewhere on the ESPN family of networks, ESPN2 topped out at 1.4 million viewers for Friday’s USC/Colorado game — up 128% from Utah State/Wyoming last year (603K) and up 32% from Louisville/Connecticut in 2013 (1.0M). ESPNU’s top audience was 685,000 for Texas/West Virginia Saturday afternoon, down 19% from Wisconsin/Purdue last year (848K) but up 17% from Missouri/Kentucky in 2013 (587K).
(Wknd. numbers via TV Media Insights/ShowBuzz Daily)
