Last weekend’s Ohio State-TCU ratings marked an early season high.
Ohio State-TCU scored a 4.2 rating and 7.23 million viewers on ABC’s Saturday Night Football last weekend, up 40% in ratings and 43% in viewership from last year (Clemson-Louisville: 3.0, 5.06M) and up 133% and 151% respectively from 2016 (USC-Stanford: 1.8, 2.88M).
It had 7.33 million with streaming included.
The Buckeyes’ win, which peaked with 8.7 million viewers from 10:30-11 PM ET, delivered the top college football audience of the young season. The previous highs were a 4.0 and 7.09 million for Michigan-Notre Dame on NBC in week one.
Excluding bowls, it was the most-watched college football game on ABC in more than a year — since Ohio State against Oklahoma in week two of last season (4.6, 8.08M).
Earlier in the day, BYU’s upset of Wisconsin scored a 1.9 and 2.91 million, up 27% in ratings and 28% in viewership from the same matchup last year (1.5, 2.27M) but down 25% and 31% respectively from 2016 (Oregon-Nebraska: 2.6, 4.23M).
Oklahoma-Iowa State started the day off with a 2.2 and 3.35 million, flat in ratings and up 3% in viewership from last year (UCLA-Memphis: 2.2, 3.24M) but down 45% and 46% respectively from 2016 (FSU-Louisville: 4.0, 6.22M).
With streaming included, BYU-Wisconsin had 2.97 million and Oklahoma-Iowa State 3.43 million.
The across-the-board increases were a turnaround from the first two weeks of the season, when ABC posted declines for five of seven windows.
[Numbers from ESPN PR 9.18, Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 9.18]
