A top-five matchup of undefeated rivals Michigan and Ohio State continued Fox Sports’ holiday weekend ratings bonanza.
Saturday’s Michigan-Ohio State college football game averaged 17 million viewers on FOX, per Nielsen fast-nationals — the largest audience for any college football game, excluding bowls and conference championships, since the primetime #1 vs. #2 Alabama-LSU game on CBS in 2011 (20M). The previous high was 16.64 million for Michigan-Ohio State on ABC in 2016, which like this year’s game was a matchup of the #2 and #3 teams.
Keep in mind out-of-home viewing was not factored into Nielsen viewership until two years ago. It is likely that some games — the aforementioned Michigan-Ohio State in ’16 or LSU-Alabama in 2019 (16.64M) — averaged a larger audience all things being equal.
The Wolverines’ easy win, which peaked with 19.6 million viewers, ranks as the most-watched meeting of the rivals since the #1 vs. #2 matchup in 2006 (21M). Just like in 2006, the teams entered their matchup undefeated — though the stakes were higher then as there was no Big Ten Championship or College Football Playoff.
Viewership increased just 3% from last year’s meeting of the teams, their first after an unplanned one-year hiatus.
Columbus, Ohio, led all markets Saturday with a 32.6 rating and whopping 70 share, followed by Cleveland at a 26.9/67, Detroit at a 24.7/65 and Cincinnati at a 20.1/52. Indianapolis was the top market outside of Ohio and Michigan at a 13.4/39.
On a stacked holiday weekend for Fox Sports, Michigan-Ohio State ranks between the titanic Giants-Cowboys audience on Thanksgiving (42M) and the USMNT-England FIFA World Cup audience on Black Friday (15.4M). Keep in mind the World Cup audience includes pre-match coverage; the match window audience will in all probability exceed that of “The Game.”
As goes without saying, Saturday’s game delivered the largest college football audience of the season by a wide margin. The previous high was 13.1 million for Tennessee-Georgia on CBS three weeks earlier.
(Nielsen estimates from Fox Sports PR)
