Alabama topped a quiet college football Saturday for ESPN.
Last Saturday’s Alabama-Arkansas college football game had a 1.5 rating and 2.50 million viewers on ESPN, up 15% in ratings and 27% in viewership from last year (Georgia-Vanderbilt: 1.3, 1.96M) and up 25% and 30% respectively from 2016 (Auburn-Mississippi State: 1.2, 1.92M).
Alabama’s rout was the only game of ESPN’s Saturday quadrupleheader to post an increase.
Later in the day, Kentucky-Texas A&M scored a 1.4 and 2.55 million — down 48% in ratings and 47% in viewership from last year (Alabama-Texas A&M: 2.7, 4.77M) and down 44% and 43% respectively from 2016 (Alabama-Arkansas: 2.5, 4.44M).
The Utah-Stanford nightcap had a 0.9 (-10%) and 1.42 million (-13%). Bringing up the rear, Clemson-Wake Forest had just a 0.6 (-65%) and 966,000 (-65%) in the afternoon.
College Gameday started the day off 1.78 million viewers, up 8% from last year and the show’s largest audience since the season premiere (1.87M).
Over on ESPN2, Auburn-Mississippi State topped the charts with a 0.8 and 1.53 million — up 211% in ratings and 234% in viewership from last year (VT-Boston College: 0.27, 458K) and up 12% and 19% respectively from 2016 (Michigan-Rutgers: 0.75, 1.28M).
The Tigers’ upset loss was ESPN2’s second-best game of the season, behind Arkansas State-Alabama in week two (1.0, 1.66M).
ESPNU topped out at just 269,000 for San Diego State-Boise State, but that was somehow up 199% from last year (Western Michigan-Buffalo: 90K).
Shifting to last Friday night, Georgia Tech-Louisville scored a 0.6 rating and 996,000 viewers (+30%) on ESPN and Utah State-BYU had a 0.36 and 617,000 (-41%) on ESPN2. As to the latter game, last year’s comparable window aired on ESPN.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 10.9]
