It was a downer holiday weekend for college football on ESPN.
ESPN earned a 2.0 final rating and 3.7 million viewers for last Saturday’s Michigan/Penn State college football game, down 20% in ratings and 17% in viewership from the same matchup last year (2.5, 4.5M) and down 43% and 38%, respectively, from Florida/Florida State in 2014 (3.5, 6.0M).
The Nittany Lions’ win was the top game of the holiday weekend on cable. The Big Ten also took top honors on broadcast, though on a much larger scale — Michigan/Ohio State had a 9.4 and 16.8 million on ABC.
Later in the night, South Carolina/Clemson had a 1.5 and 2.7 million — down 38% in ratings and viewership from Florida State/Florida last year (2.4, 4.3M) and down 80% in both measures from Auburn/Alabama in 2014, ESPN’s highest rated and most-watched regular season college football game (7.4, 13.5M).
ESPN started the day with a 0.9 and 1.6 million for Kentucky’s upset of Louisville, down 50% in ratings and 47% in viewership from Clemson/South Carolina last year (1.8, 2.9M) and down 31% and 23%, respectively, from South Carolina/Clemson in 2014 (1.3, 2.0M). The especially steep declines were likely due to tough competition from Michigan/Ohio State.
On Friday, Baylor/Texas Tech had 1.8 million viewers — down 65% from TCU/Baylor last year, an overtime game that had playoff implications (5.1M), and also down 41% from Virginia/Virginia Tech two years ago (3.0M). Both of those games aired in a later timeslot. The Arizona/Arizona State nightcap had a 1.0 final rating and 1.7 million; there was no comparable late window last year or in 2014.
The weekend’s top draw on ESPN2 was Toledo/Western Michigan Friday night, which had a 0.4 and 665,000. There was no comparable window last year. ESPNU topped out at just 320,000 for Utah State/BYU Saturday night — up 63% from Air Force/New Mexico last year (196K) and up 62% from Nevada/UNLV in ’14 (198K).
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 11/30)
