ESPN scored a big increase in ratings for SEC action last weekend.
Mississippi State-LSU earned a 1.9 rating and 3.11 million viewers on ESPN last Saturday, up 73% in ratings and 64% in viewership from last year (LSU-Mississippi: 1.1, 1.89M) and up 52% and 48% respectively from 2016 (Arkansas-Auburn: 1.3, 2.13M).
The Tigers’ win earned the sixth-largest audience of the season on cable. ESPN has aired the nine most-watched games on cable this season.
Earlier in the day, Auburn-Mississippi scored a 1.3 (-24%) and 2.21 million (-14%) and Clemson’s rout of NC State had a 1.1 (-15%) and 1.81 million (-14%).
ESPN’s College Gameday, which visited the campus of Washington State for the first time, had 1.72 million — down 7% from last year (at Penn State: 1.84M) and down 5% from 2016 (at Alabama: 1.81M). Including simulcast coverage on ESPNU, it had 1.80 million.
Rounding out ESPN’s week eight schedule, last Thursday’s Stanford-Arizona State game had a 0.5 and 808,000 — up 37% in ratings and 43% in viewership from last year (Memphis-Houston: 0.38, 565K).
Over on ESPN2, Maryland-Iowa was last week’s top game with a 0.43 rating (-14%) and 701,000 (-14%). ESPN2 scored increases for its three other games last Saturday, including a 71 percent jump for UCF-ECU (from 284K to 486K) and a 48% increase for Arizona-UCLA (from 414K to 614K).
The full list of week eight college football ratings is available here.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 10.23, ESPN PR 10.23]
