College football ratings continue to impress, with two more games crossing the eight million viewer threshold on Saturday.
Penn State-Ohio State averaged a 5.3 rating and 9.96 million viewers on FOX “Big Noon Saturday” over the weekend, marking the third-largest audience of the season on any network. Ohio State has played in two of the top three games, with Saturday’s game joining their win over Notre Dame on NBC September 23 (9.98M, 10.59M including Adobe Analytics) and Colorado-Oregon on ABC the same day (10.03M). (The full list of college football ratings this season is available here.)
The Buckeyes’ win, which peaked with 11.50 million viewers, delivered the largest college football audience of the season on FOX and the network’s seventh-largest audience overall (excluding conference championship and bowl games). It trails only five Ohio State-Michigan games and last year’s Alabama-Texas game (10.60M).
Five games this season have averaged at least nine million viewers, more than last year’s regular season total of four.
Ratings increased 18% and viewership 20% from the same matchup last year, which took place one week later in the season (4.5, 8.27M), and more-than-doubled Iowa-Ohio State on the comparable year-ago weekend (2.4, 4.38M).
Also Saturday, Tennessee-Alabama averaged a 4.2 and 8.01 million on the SEC on CBS — the network’s largest audience of the season and the eighth-largest across all networks. The Tide’s win, which peaked with 9.79 million viewers, was the 13th game this season to average at least seven million viewers, compared to last year’s regular season total of ten.
Ratings and viewership still declined from last year’s meeting between the teams, a top-ten matchup in which Tennessee won in an upset (11.56M). Compared to the same week last season, ratings jumped 87% and viewership 108% from Mississippi-LSU (2.3, 3.86M).
Placing a distant third for the weekend, FSU’s comeback win over Duke averaged a 2.2 and 4.08 million on ABC’s Saturday Night Football — topping a competitive primetime window that also included the fourth and fifth-most watched games of the weekend: Michigan-Michigan State on NBC at a 1.8 and 3.73 million and Utah-USC on FOX at a 1.7 and 3.23 million.
Even The CW was stronger than usual in primetime Saturday night, averaging a season-high 0.44 and 788,000 for Virginia’s stunning upset of previously-undefeated North Carolina.
Despite the added competition — none of NBC, FOX or The CW aired a game in the same window last year — ABC still posted increases of 8% and 15% respectively over Minnesota-Penn State last year (2.0, 3.54M). The network’s early windows did not fare nearly as well, with Washington State-Oregon plunging 45% in ratings (to 1.4) and 47% in viewership (to 2.35M) from Texas-Oklahoma State last year (2.5, 4.46M) and UCF-Oklahoma down 53% (to 1.3) and 54% (to 2.17M) from Syracuse-Clemson (2.7, 4.75M).
Other notable results from the weekend include a 1.6 and 3.08 million for Texas-Houston on FOX — down from UCLA-Oregon last year (1.8, 3.34M) — and a 0.9 and 1.68 million for Minnesota’s upset of Iowa on NBC, the network’s second-largest afternoon audience this season (five telecasts).
For more weekend ratings, see the usual chart.
