The nation’s top team scored one of the top college football ratings of the season on cable.
Alabama-Texas A&M scored a 2.7 rating and 4.8 million viewers on ESPN Saturday night, up 8% in ratings and 7% in viewership from Alabama-Arkansas last year (2.5, 4.5M). Figures both this year and last include streaming viewership.
The Tide’s win delivered the third-largest audience of the season on cable, behind Ohio State-Indiana on the opening Thursday (5.4M) and Georgia Tech-Tennessee on Labor Day (5.3M).
For the weekend, it ranked second behind the competing Michigan State-Michigan game, which had a 3.7 and 6.5 million on TV (6.6 million including streaming).
Earlier in the day, Miami-Florida State drew a 1.7 and 2.7 million — down 11% in ratings and 15% in viewership from Indiana-Ohio State last year (1.9, 3.3M). It was the lowest rated and least-watched Miami-FSU game since at least 2003.
Bookending ESPN’s quadrupleheader, Georgia-Vanderbilt scored a 1.3 (+8%) and 2.0 million (-1%) and Cal-Washington a 1.0 (-1%) and 1.6 million (-7%**).
Shifting to weeknight action, last Friday’s Boise State-BYU game had 1.0 million viewers and Memphis-UConn drew 769,000 (-55%).
On ESPN2, Wake Forest-Clemson game led the week six slate with a 0.6 and 864,000 Saturday afternoon, while ESPNU topped out at just 131,000 for UCF-Cincinnati Saturday night.
** Comparison is to TV-only audience last year.
[Wknd. numbers from ESPN, ShowBuzz Daily 10.10]
