With its first marquee matchup of the season, the SEC on CBS led the way on a packed college football weekend.
Alabama/Mississippi scored a 5.0 final rating and 8.2 million viewers on the SEC on CBS Saturday afternoon, up 92% in ratings and 93% in viewership from Auburn/LSU last year (2.6, 4.2M) and up 22% and 21%, respectively, from Georgia/South Carolina in 2014 (4.1, 6.8M).
Compared to the teams’ meeting on the same weekend last year, which aired in primetime on ESPN, ratings increased 9% (from 4.6) and viewership 7% (from 7.6M).
Alabama’s win generated the second-best rating and viewership of the young season, trailing only Notre Dame/Texas on ABC the Sunday of Labor Day weekend (6.4, 10.9M). Mississippi has now played in two of the season’s top three games, with its Labor Day loss to Florida State ranking third (4.8, 8.4M).
The 5.0 rating is also the second-best for the SEC on CBS in week three of the season — which prior to last year marked its first week of coverage — since the network shifted to an SEC-only schedule in 2001.
For the weekend, the SEC on CBS finished comfortably ahead of the second-place game, Florida State/Louisville on ABC (4.0, 6.3M).
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily)
