Ratings hit a ten-year high for the Oklahoma-Texas rivalry.
Last Saturday’s Oklahoma-Texas college football game averaged a 4.5 rating and 7.25 million viewers on FOX, marking the rivals’ highest rated and most-watched regular season meeting in a decade (2009: 5.7, 8.71M). That excludes their matchup in last year’s Big 12 Championship (6.2, 10.16M).
Ratings and viewership increased 29% from last year’s matchup between the teams (3.5, 5.61M) and 114% and 100% respectively from the 2017 game, which aired on ESPN in a later timeslot (2.1, 3.62M).
The Sooners’ win delivered the third-highest rating and viewership of the college football season, behind Notre Dame-Georgia on CBS in week four (5.4, 9.29M) and LSU-Texas on ABC in week two (5.0, 8.63M).
It was the day’s top sporting event, finishing comfortably ahead of Florida-LSU on ESPN (3.6, 6.45M), Alabama-Texas A&M on CBS (3.7, 6.11M) and Game 1 of the Yankees-Astros ALCS on FOX (3.6, 6.11M).
The game also delivered Fox Sports’ fifth-largest regular season college football audience (excluding conference championships). Michigan-Ohio State holds the top two spots, with 13.20 million viewers last year and 10.51 million in 2017, followed by Penn State-Ohio State in 2017 (9.87M) and Notre Dame-Stanford in 2015 (7.32M).
Over on FS1, Nebraska-Minnesota averaged a 0.5 and 1.02 million Saturday night — down 295 in ratings and 23% in viewership from last year (West Virginia-Iowa State: 0.8, 1.32M) and down 59% and 57% respectively from Ohio State-Nebraska in 2017 (1.3, 2.38M).
Texas Tech-Baylor had a 0.5 (+45%) and 810,000 (+62%) earlier in the day and Washington-Arizona a 0.42 (-40%) and 730,000 (-38%) in the nightcap.
On Friday night, FS1 scored a 0.38 and 687,000 for Colorado-Oregon.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 10.15]
