Overshadowed by Clemson-Notre Dame — to say nothing of the presidential election — Georgia-Florida still delivered one of the season’s top college football ratings last weekend.
Last Saturday’s Georgia-Florida college football game averaged a 3.5 rating and 6.34 million viewers on CBS, down 17% in ratings and 9% in viewership from the rivals’ meeting last season (4.2, 6.98M), but still the fourth-most watched game of the season. Georgia has played in three of the season’s top six games.
Two of the season’s top four games came last Saturday, with Clemson-Notre Dame topping the charts at a 5.4 and 10.07 million viewers on NBC.
In other action, the Arizona State-USC Pac-12 opener averaged a 1.3 rating and 2.33 million viewers on FOX Big Noon Saturday — down 28% in ratings and 14% in viewership from the same window last year (Nebraska-Purdue: 1.8, 2.70M). The game, which aired shortly after the major networks projected the winner of the presidential election, ranked second in its timeslot behind West Virginia-Texas on ABC (1.6, 2.75M) and ahead of Michigan’s upset loss to Indiana on FS1 (1.0, 1.75M).
Elsewhere in the Pac-12, Stanford-Oregon averaged a mere 0.9 and 1.66 million on ABC’s Saturday Night Football, down 50% in ratings and 44% in viewership from SMU-Memphis last year (1.8, 2.95M) and the lowest rated and least-watched game in the 14-year history of the series. The game faced both Clemson-Notre Dame and coverage of projected president-elect Joe Biden’s victory speech.
With the presidential election taking center stage Saturday, college football games faced intense cable news competition. CNN (4.23M), MSNBC (3.61M) and Fox News (2.04M) combined to average 9.88 million total day viewers and a whopping 15.18 million in primetime — up 119% and 144% respectively from the previous Saturday (4.51M total-day and 6.23M primetime). The broadcast networks also aired election coverage at various points the day.
Shifting to weekday games, last Friday’s Miami-NC State game on ESPN averaged a 1.1 and 1.87 million — trailing only Minnesota-Maryland the previous week (1.2, 1.91M) as the most-watched weekday game in more than a year (excluding bowls).
Moving ahead to this week, Wednesday’s Toledo-Western Michigan game averaged 722,000 viewers on ESPN, topping Ohio-Central Michigan the previous week (711K) as the most-watched “midweek MACtion” game since 2015. ESPN also averaged 642,000 for Miami (OH)-Buffalo on Tuesday night.
The full list of last weekend’s college football ratings is available here.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 11.10, 11.11, 11.12; cable news numbers from TV Newser 11.10]
