The numbers were nothing to brag about, but ABC’s Saturday Night Football eked out a slight bump opposite the World Series.
Texas-Oklahoma State scored a 2.1 rating and 3.49 million viewers on ABC last Saturday night, up a tick in ratings and 1% in viewership from regional action last year (2.0, 3.46M) but down 34% and 35% respectively from 2016 (Clemson-FSU: 3.2, 5.38M).
The Cowboys’ upset win narrowly avoided a season-low for ABC’s Saturday night window. Penn State-Pittsburgh had a 2.0 and 3.29 million in week three.
Even so, an increase is an increase — and Saturday’s was just the tenth in 28 windows on ABC this season. Keep in mind the competing World Series game was less of a draw than last year.
On a light college football weekend, Texas-Oklahoma State ranked second among all games behind Georgia-Florida on CBS earlier in the day (3.9, 6.35M).
Earlier Saturday, Clemson’s rout of FSU earned a 2.0 (-9%) and 3.16 million viewers (-6%), ranking third for the weekend. ABC also had a 1.4 (-22%) and 2.04 million (-29%) for mid-afternoon regional action, with reverse mirror coverage on ESPN2 chipping in a 0.20 and 315,000.
The full list of week nine college football ratings is available here.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 10.30]
