The annual primetime edition of the SEC on CBS was the highest rated college football game of the season, and the highest rated non-NFL sporting event since January.
Last Saturday’s Georgia-Alabama college football game averaged a 5.3 rating and 9.61 million viewers on CBS, easily ranking as the highest rated and most-watched game of the season. It cruised past the previous highs of 3.1 and 5.77 million set a week earlier by Tennessee-Georgia. No other game this season has cracked a 3.0 rating, compared to 18 through seven weeks last season.
The Tide’s win, which peaked with a 6.6 and 12.05 million from 9:45-10 PM ET, also ranks as the highest rated non-NFL sporting event since the College Football Playoff in January — edging the following night’s Braves-Dodgers MLB NLCS Game 7 (5.2). It trails Braves-Dodgers (9.66M) as the most-watched.
Compared to last year’s primetime game on CBS, Notre Dame-Georgia in week four, ratings fell a tick (from 5.4) but viewership increased 3% (from 9.29M).
Georgia-Alabama was the exception on an otherwise low-rated college football Saturday in which no other game managed even a 2.0 rating. Prior to this season, it was rare — if not unprecedented — for only one game to crack the 2.0 mark on a college football weekend. This season, it has happened three times (not counting ‘week zero’).
Louisville-Notre Dame ranked a distant second with a 1.8 and 3.12 million on NBC — trailing only Duke-Notre Dame in week two (4.32M) as the network’s most watched afternoon college football game in the last three years. Viewership increased 55% over the network’s average for afternoon games last season (2.01M).
ESPN took the third and fourth spots, averaging a 1.5 and 2.57 million for Auburn-South Carolina and a 1.5 and 2.43 million for Texas A&M-Mississippi State. The former declined 25% in ratings and 21% in viewership from last year (South Carolina-Georgia: 2.0, 3.25M), while the latter jumped 50% and 55% respectively (from Iowa State-West Virginia: 1.0, 1.57M).
ABC rounded out the top five with a 1.4 (flat) and 2.25 million (+5%) for Clemson’s outrageous rout of Georgia Tech. The network also averaged a 1.4 and 2.20 million for Florida State’s Saturday Night Football upset of North Carolina — down 41% from a Big Ten game last year (Penn State-Iowa: 2.2, 3.70M) — and a 1.1 (-31%) and 1.90 million (-25%) for UCF-Memphis.
The weekend’s lone game on FOX, Kansas-West Virginia, had a 0.9 and 1.46 million — down an unsurprising 80% from Texas-Oklahoma in the same week seven window last year (4.5, 7.32M).
The full list of 2020 college football TV ratings is available here.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 10.20, CBS PR]
