Though far less of a game than anticipated, last week’s showdown-turned-mismatch between Florida State and Louisville did well on ABC.
Saturday’s FSU/Louisville college football game earned a 4.0 final rating and 6.2 million viewers on ABC, up 135% in ratings and 146% in viewership from Air Force/Michigan State last year (1.7, 2.5M), up 111% and 110%, respectively, from regional action in 2014 (1.9, 3.0M), and the network’s most-watched Noon ET game this early in the season since 2003 (6.9M).
The Cardinals’ blowout win ranked second for the weekend among college football games, behind only Alabama/Mississippi on CBS later in the day (5.0, 8.2M).
Figures do not include the streaming audience of 160,000 on WatchESPN. With those viewers included, the game had 6.4 million.
In other action, USC/Stanford pulled a 1.8 and 2.9 million on Saturday Night Football — down 18% in ratings and viewership from the same matchup last year (2.2, 3.5M) and down 18% and 23%, respectively, from Tennessee/Oklahoma in 2014 (2.2, 3.8M). The 1.8 rating is tied as the second-lowest in the history of Saturday Night Football (dates back to 2006), ahead of only a 1.6 for UCLA/Arizona last year.
Sandwiched between those two games, ABC pulled 4.2 million viewers for Oregon/Nebraska — down 20% from regional action featuring Northern Illinois/Ohio State last year (5.3M) but up 29% from Arkansas/Texas Tech in 2014 (3.3M). Ratings also dropped 22% from last year (3.28 to 2.55).
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 9/20, ESPN Media Zone 9/21)
