For the first time all season, primetime college football slipped under broadcast television’s Mendoza line.
Last Saturday’s Arizona State/USC college football game earned a 0.9 final rating and 1.5 million viewers on FOX, down 36% in ratings and 33% in viewership from Arizona State/UCLA last year (1.4, 2.2M) but up a tick and 12%, respectively, from Baylor/Iowa State in 2014 (0.8, 1.3M).
The Trojans’ easy win is tied with two other games — Utah/Washington last year and Fresno State/USC in 2014 — as the second-lowest college football game ever on primetime broadcast television. The aforementioned Baylor/Iowa State game is the lowest rated. All four of those games, it should be noted, aired on FOX.
For the weekend, Arizona State/USC was the lowest rated and least-watched game on broadcast.
Earlier in the evening, Oklahoma/TCU scored a 1.3 and 2.0 million — up 30% in ratings and 42% in viewership from Stanford/Washington in a similar window two years ago (1.0, 1.4M). There was no comparable telecast last year.
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 10/4)
