The Big Ten Championship Game hit a four-year ratings low.
Last Saturday’s Ohio State-Northwestern Big Ten Championship Game scored a 5.0 rating and 8.66 million viewers on FOX, down 32% in ratings and 33% in viewership from last year (Ohio State-Wisconsin: 7.3, 12.9M) and down 6% in both measures from 2016 (Penn State-Wisconsin: 5.3, 9.19M).
The Buckeyes’ win delivered the lowest rating and viewership for the Big Ten Championship in four years — since Ohio State 59, Wisconsin 0 in 2014 (3.5, 6.13). Not coincidentally, this year marked the first time since 2014 that the title game included a team from outside of the top ten.
Overall, this year’s game ranks fifth out of the total eight Big Ten title games (2011-present).
Despite the decline, Ohio State-Northwestern still generated the second-best rating and viewership on Fox Sports this season, and the seventh-best across all networks. Ohio State played in four of the top ten games this season, more than any other team. Alabama played in three of the top ten, Notre Dame in two, Oklahoma in one and Clemson in none.
Head-to-head, Ohio State-Northwestern doubled the Clemson-Pittsburgh ACC Championship Game on ABC (2.5, 4.24M).
The full list of championship weekend college football ratings is available here.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 12.4]
