For the second time in three weeks, a top ten thriller scored strong numbers on ABC’s Saturday Night Football.
Ohio State/Wisconsin earned a 5.2 final rating and 9.0 million viewers on ABC’s Saturday Night Football last weekend, up 58% in ratings and 53% in viewership from Penn State/Ohio State last year (3.3, 5.9M). There was no comparable window in 2014 due to NASCAR.
The Buckeyes’ overtime win, which peaked at 10.9 million from 11:30 PM-Midnight ET, delivered the third-best rating and viewership for any college football game this season — trailing Louisville/Clemson two weeks earlier (5.5, 9.3M) and Notre Dame/Texas on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend (6.4, 10.9M). Those games also aired on ABC.
As goes without saying, the game was the highest rated and most-watched telecast of week seven, comfortably topping Alabama/Tennessee on CBS earlier in the day (3.9, 6.6M). It easily topped its primetime competition, which included Stanford/Notre Dame on NBC (1.8, 2.9M) and Game 1 of the MLB NLCS on Fox Sports 1 (3.2, 5.9M).
Including streaming viewership on WatchESPN, the game had an audience of 9.1 million.
Earlier in the day, N.C. State/Clemson scored a 3.0 and 4.5 million in the Noon ET window — up 30% in ratings and 36% in viewership from regional action last year (2.3, 3.3M) and up 7% and 6%, respectively, from Texas/Oklahoma in 2014 (2.8, 4.2M).
Clemson’s overtime win, which peaked at 6.6 million from 3:30-4 PM, scored the third-best figures for a Noon ET game this season — behind Florida State/Louisville in week three (4.0, 6.2M) and Oklahoma/Houston in week one (3.5, 5.7M). Including streaming viewership, it had 4.6 million.
In the middle game of ABC’s tripleheader, regional action had a 2.3 and 3.7 million — up 109% in ratings and 137% in viewership from Oklahoma/Kansas State last year (1.1, 1.6M) but down 18% and 15%, respectively, from regional action in 2014 (2.8, 4.4M). With streaming included, it had 3.8 million.
(Wknd. numbers from ESPN, ShowBuzz Daily 10/18)
