The biggest game of the season delivered big ratings.
Last Saturday’s Michigan/Ohio State college football game had a 9.4 final rating and 16.8 million viewers on ABC, up 47% in ratings and 56% in viewership from the teams’ matchup last year (6.4, 10.8M) and up 92% and 105%, respectively, from their 2014 meeting, which was one week later in the season (4.9, 8.2M).
The Buckeyes’ double-overtime win, which peaked with 20.3 million viewers in the fast-nationals, ranks as the highest rated non-bowl college football game since the Alabama/Georgia SEC Championship in 2012 (9.8) and the most watched since a #1 vs. #2 LSU/Alabama matchup in 2011 (20.0M), both of which aired on CBS.
It also ranks as the highest rated and most-watched daytime game, again excluding bowls, since the Florida/Alabama SEC Championship on CBS in 2009 — another #1 vs. #2 matchup (11.1, 18.0M) — and the most-watched Noon ET game on record (dating back to 1991).
Relative to the Michigan/Ohio State rivalry, Saturday’s edition was the highest rated and most-watched since their #1 vs. #2 “Game of the Century” in 2006 (13.0, 21.0M).
Overall, it delivered the fifth-largest non-bowl audience in the past 25 years — behind Florida/Alabama in 2009, LSU/Alabama in 2011, Michigan/Ohio State in 2006, and Florida State/Notre Dame on NBC in 1993 (22.0M). Each of those was a matchup of the nation’s top two teams.
Viewership was even higher with the streaming audience included. WatchESPN generated 279,000 viewers for the game, a record for regular season college football on the platform, bringing the total audience up to 17.1 million.
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 11/30, ESPN Media Zone 11/30)
