The score at one point ballooned to 48-0, but Ohio State-Nebraska still delivered college football’s highest overnight rating of the weekend.
Ohio State-Nebraska averaged a 3.9 overnight rating on ABC’s Saturday Night Football over the weekend, the highest college football overnight of week five. ABC’s Saturday night window has topped the charts in three of five weeks this season, not counting “week zero.”
The Buckeyes’ blowout win declined 36% from a much-hyped Ohio State-Penn State game last year (6.1), but increased 30% from Clemson-Virginia Tech in 2017 (3.0).
Earlier in the day, ABC scored a 3.1 for North Carolina’s near-upset of #1 Clemson — up 48% from both Baylor-Oklahoma last year and Florida State-Wake Forest in 2017 (2.1).
Compared to Clemson’s near-loss to Syracuse on the comparable date last year, which aired on ABC in the Noon ET window, overnights fell 6% from 3.3.
As for this year’s Noon window, ABC and FOX tied in the metered markets. ABC averaged a 2.2 for Northwestern-Wisconsin, down a third from the aforementioned Clemson-Syracuse game, but up 10% from the same matchup in 2017 (2.0).
FOX scored the same number for its competing Oklahoma-Texas Tech Big Noon Saturday game; there was no comparable window last year. In a shift from previous weeks, the Big Noon lead-in did not lead to an increase for the network’s mid-afternoon game. USC-Washington had a 1.7, down 35% from Michigan-Northwestern last year (2.6).
In other action, CBS averaged a 2.2 for Alabama-Mississippi (-15%) and NBC a 2.1 for Virginia-Notre Dame. The latter ranks as NBC’s highest afternoon Notre Dame overnight since 2017.
Over on ESPN, Texas A&M-Arkansas led the week five slate with a 1.6 overnight (+60%). Mississippi State-Auburn had a 1.2 (+9%) and UCLA-Arizona a 1.1 (+10%).
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post reported that the USC-Washington game was up from last year. That was based on a comparison to 2017, not to last year.
[Nielsen estimates from ESPN PR 9.29, Fox Sports, NBC Sports]
