The NFL (as usual) dominated the weekly charts, but Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes were no doubt the sports ratings story of the week.
Sunday’s NFL national window on CBS (mostly Jets-Cowboys) averaged a 12.8 rating and 25.78 million viewers, easily ranking as the most-watched television program of the week, though down from Week 2 last year (mostly Bengals-Cowboys). The full NFL ratings page, with comparisons to last year’s windows, can be seen here.
The big ratings story of the week was Colorado’s double-overtime win over Colorado State Saturday night, which despite a 10 PM ET start averaged more than 9.3 million viewers on ESPN — making it the most-watched game of the season and a top-five regular season game ever on the ESPN family of networks. More details on that game available here, and the full list of week three college football ratings can be seen here.
Outside of football, the top sporting event of the week was a regional Major League Baseball window on FOX last Thursday night (1.68M). NASCAR’s playoff race at Bristol followed with just 1.56 million, the smallest audience ever for a race at that venue.
Sunday, September 17
As previously noted, CBS topped the weekly charts with over 25 million viewers for its late doubleheader window. NBC’s Sunday Night Football placed second for the day (and the week) with 17.8 million.
Saturday, September 16
Colorado’s win over Colorado State dominated Saturday’s college football slate, averaging nearly four million more viewers than the second-place finisher — Georgia’s closer-than-expected win over South Carolina on CBS (5.42M). The Georgia-South Carolina gme aired in a competitive window that also featured Alabama’s near-disaster against South Florida on ABC (4.84M).
Friday, September 15
On a quiet Friday night, NASCAR’s Xfinity Series at Bristol took top honors with 993,000 viewers, though its older-skewing audience placed it much further back in the key demos.
Thursday, September 14
Amazon’s Thursday Night Football opened with its largest audience yet as more than 15 million tuned in for Vikings-Eagles.
Wednesday, September 13
On a whisper-quiet day in sports, ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption was the top program of the day with 694,000 viewers. The top live sporting event was 28-point WNBA playoff rout with 374,000.
Tuesday, September 12
“El Tri” topped last Tuesday’s ratings with 1.29 million for a match against Uzbekistan on Univision.
Monday, September 11
Aaron Rodgers’ short-lived debut with the New York Jets helped Monday Night Football to its largest audience in 23 years as ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes combined for nearly 23 million viewers.
