A pair of marquee college football matchups delivered strong numbers on ABC.
LSU-Texas averaged a 5.0 rating and 8.63 million viewers on ABC’s Saturday Night Football last weekend, up 150% in ratings and 163% in viewership from last year (Penn State-Pittsburgh: 2.0, 3.29M), and up 9% and 7% respectively from Oklahoma-Ohio State in 2017 (4.6, 8.08M).
The Tigers’ win ranks as the highest rated and most-watched game of the young college football season.
ABC has aired the top three games, including Texas A&M-Clemson earlier Saturday afternoon. That game averaged a 4.0 and 6.46 million, up 90% in ratings and viewership from last year (Colorado-Nebraska: 2.1, 3.39M) and up 67% and 75% respectively from 2017 (Pittsburgh-Penn State: 2.4, 3.70M).
Rounding out the ABC tripleheader, Cincinnati-Ohio State pulled a 1.9 (+12%) and 2.94 million (+16%) in the Noon ET window.
Overall, ABC averaged 6.23 million for its triple header (+102%), marking its most-watched college football Saturday since the 2017 opening weekend.
While ABC had a strong weekend, the same could not be said of ESPN. All three of the network’s games declined double-digits from last year, with Stanford-USC down 20% in ratings (to 1.2) and 19% in viewership (to 1.86M), BYU-Tennessee down 65% (to 0.9) and 64% (to 1.60M), and Syracuse-Maryland down 27% (to 0.8) and 29% (to 1.28M).
Further down the dial, ESPN2 topped out at a 0.9 and 1.38 million for Marshall-Boise State last Friday night — up 29% in ratings and 28% in viewership from last year (TCU-SMU: 0.7, 1.08M), and up 50% and 42% respectively from 2017 (Oklahoma State-South Alabama: 0.6, 966K). ESPNU’s top game was Tennessee-Martin against Florida Saturday night, which had 364,000 (+50%).
A full list of this season’s college football ratings is available here.
