CBS likely knew the risk of a rout was real when it scheduled Alabama-Vanderbilt, but probably was not expecting a 59-0 drubbing.
Alabama-Vanderbilt drew a 1.9 rating and 3.0 million viewers on the SEC on CBS last weekend, down 42% in ratings and 46% in viewership from Florida-Tennessee last year (3.3, 5.5M) and down 34% and 36% respectively from Tennessee-Florida in 2015 (2.9, 4.6M).
The 1.9 rating is the lowest for an Alabama game on CBS since at least 2008, falling below the previous mark of 2.3 for a game against Missouri in 2012. Their first CBS game last season, against Mississippi, had a considerably stronger 5.0 and 8.2 million.
The Tide’s easy win ranked third in its timeslot behind Michigan-Purdue on FOX (2.2, 3.5M) and USC-Cal on ABC (2.0, 3.1M). For the weekend, it ranked sixth overall but edged Mississippi State-Georgia on ESPN (1.55, 2.8M) as the top SEC game.
[Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 9.26]
