Aided by yet another Top 25 matchup, CBS SEC ratings increased for the fourth time in five weeks.
LSU-Florida scored a 2.9 rating and 4.70 million viewers on the SEC on CBS last weekend, up 16% in ratings and 14% in viewership from the same matchup last year (2.5, 4.13M) but down 26% and 28% respectively from 2016 (Tennessee-Texas A&M: 3.9, 6.55M).
The Gators’ upset win was the fourth of the past five games on CBS to increase over last year. Not coincidentally, all four of those games were Top 25 matchups. The lone exception, Tennessee-Georgia last week, was the only game to involve an unranked team.
For the weekend, the SEC on CBS ranked second among college football windows behind the Texas-Oklahoma “Red River Rivalry” on FOX (3.5, 5.61M). Head-to-head, it topped the competing Indiana-Ohio State game on FOX (2.45, 3.99M) and comfortably beat FSU-Miami on ABC (1.8, 2.81M).
CBS has ranked first or second in four of the past five weeks, the lone exception again being Georgia-Tennessee last week.
Keep in mind the numbers were not particularly impressive by LSU-Florida standards. Excluding the 2014 and 2016 games on SEC Network, which is not Nielsen-rated, Saturday’s matchup topped only last year as the rivals’ lowest rated and least-watched meeting in more than a decade.
The full list of week six college football ratings is available here.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 10.9]
