ABC’s Saturday Night Football continues to increase over last year.
Penn State-Iowa scored a 3.1 rating and 5.3 million viewers on ABC Saturday night, up 29% in ratings and 39% in viewership from Stanford-UCLA last year (2.4, 3.8M) and up 94% and 120% respectively from UCLA-Arizona in 2015 (1.6, 2.4M).
The Nittany Lions’ last-second win, which peaked with 7.9 million viewers from 11-11:15 PM ET, was the top college football telecast of the weekend on any network.
Head-to-head, the game comfortably topped Notre Dame-Michigan State on FOX (2.1, 3.5M). ABC’s Saturday Night Football has beaten the FOX primetime game in all four head-to-head meetings this season, no small feat given the dramatically improved schedule on FOX this year.
Streaming viewership had a minimal impact on the numbers, boosting the audience from 5.26 to 5.34 million. Including streaming, ABC’s Saturday night franchise is now averaging 7.8 million viewers on ABC — up 49% from last year. All four games thus far have posted a double-digit increase in viewership.
Earlier in the day, regional action featuring N.C. State-Florida State had a 2.5 and 3.7 million — up 47% in ratings and viewership from USF-FSU last year (1.7, 2.6M) and up 25% and 22% respectively from BYU-Michigan in ’15 (2.0, 3.1M). Including streaming, it had 3.9 million.
Rounding out ABC’s tripleheader, USC-Cal delivered a 2.0 (-17%) and 3.1 million (-17%). It was beaten head-to-head by Michigan-Purdue on FOX, which had a 2.2 and 3.5 million.
[Wknd. numbers from ESPN, ShowBuzz Daily 9.26]
