Facing tough competition for a third straight week, an Ohio State blowout was no way to move the needle for ABC.
Nebraska/Ohio State delivered a 3.0 overnight rating on ABC’s Saturday Night Football over the weekend, even with Minnesota/Ohio State last year and up 43% from regional action featuring Illinois/Ohio State in 2014 (2.1), but the third-lowest mark for ABC’s Saturday night franchise this season (ten telecasts).
Only Stanford/UCLA in week four (2.8) and Stanford/USC in week three (2.1) pulled a lower overnight than the Buckeyes’ 62-3 demolition of the Huskers.
Head-to-head, the game was doubled by Alabama/LSU on CBS (6.0) — marking the third straight week that Saturday Night Football has been crushed by the competition. It lost to Game 4 of the World Series the previous week (10.5 to 3.6) and to Game 6 of the NLCS the week before that (6.3 to 3.6).
Earlier in the day, Wisconsin/Northwestern scored a 1.8 overnight rating in the Noon ET window — off 36% from Notre Dame/Pittsburgh last year (2.8) and 23% from regional action in 2014 (2.3). Regional action later in the afternoon also had a 1.8, down 67% from a much-hyped Florida State/Clemson game in the same window last year (5.5) and down 31% from regional action in 2014 (2.6).
(Wknd. numbers via Sports Business Daily 11/7)
