A pair of top-ten SEC matchups featuring some of college football’s most prominent teams delivered season-high viewership on both broadcast and cable.
Saturday’s Tennessee-Georgia college football game averaged a 6.7 rating and 13.06 million viewers on CBS, marking the highest rated and most-watched game of the season, topping the previous highs of 6.1 and 11.56 million for Alabama-Tennessee in the same window three weeks earlier (6.1, 11.56M).
The Bulldogs’ win also ranks as the most-watched game on record between Tennessee and Georgia (dating back 25 years). Notably, it was the highest rated and most-watched sporting event of a day that included the clinching Game 6 of the World Series on FOX (Phillies-Astros: 6.1, 12.55M). It also swept each of the key young adult demographics.
Later in the day, LSU’s upset of Alabama averaged a 3.9 and 7.58 million on ESPN — up sharply from the same matchup in the same window last year (2.8, ~5.0M). Excluding bowl games, the Tigers’ win delivered college football’s largest cable audience since ESPN drew 8.35 million for Mississippi-FSU on Labor Day 2016 (8.35M).
For the season, it ranks sixth in viewership — with Alabama having played in three of the top six and four of the top eight. Overall, an SEC team has been featured in ten of the 14 most-watched games this season, with seven of those being conference games.
Keep in mind the game faced tough competition from the aforementioned World Series clincher. It also aired opposite Notre Dame’s upset of Clemson on NBC, the most-watched Notre Dame home game of the season at a 1.8 and 3.22 million.
The SEC also owned three of the five largest audiences in week ten, with Florida-Texas A&M rounding out the top five at a 1.5 and 2.73 million on ESPN.
As for the other conferences, Ohio State-Northwestern was the top non-SEC game this weekend with a 2.7 and 4.76 million on ABC — doubling last year’s comparable Wake Forest-North Carolina game (1.3, ~2.2M) and the network’s most-watched Noon ET game this season. ABC dominated the Noon window with the FOX “Big Noon” matchup of Texas Tech-TCU at a 1.4 and 2.51 million, about half of what Ohio State-Nebraska drew in the same window last year (3.0, ~5.3M).
ABC also drew a 1.3 and 2.23 million for Penn State-Indiana — also about half of what Michigan State-Purdue drew last year (2.5, ~4.4M) — and a mere 0.8 and 1.5 million for FSU-Miami in primetime. The audience for FSU-Miami, which aired in a crowded primetime slot opposite the World Series, Alabama-LSU and Clemson-Notre Dame, is the lowest for the rivalry in at least 20 seasons.
In other action, a lead-in from Alabama-LSU helped Cal-USC to a 1.1 and 2.04 million on ESPN — the largest late night Pac-12 audience since Arizona State hosted Michigan State in 2018 (2.30M). Among conference games only, it was the most-watched in the late window since Washington-Arizona State in 2017 (2.28M). Notably, it was not the largest late night audience this season, as Baylor-BYU had 2.37 million in September.
Moving to the smaller networks, BTN topped out at 1.29 million for Michigan-Rutgers and ESPN2 drew a 0.6 and 1.13 million for Oregon State-Washington last Friday night.
The full list of week ten college football ratings is below; the full season of charts is available on the linked page.
Week 10 college football TV ratings
(Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 11.8, network PR)
