Deion Sanders has turned Colorado into one of college football’s top TV draws, but Texas-Alabama still (barely) topped the charts in week two.
Colorado’s blowout win over Nebraska on FOX “Big Noon Saturday” averaged a 4.8 rating and 8.73 million viewers, marking the highest rated and second-most watched college football game of the weekend. Texas-Alabama averaged a 4.5 and 8.76 million across ESPN (4.1, 7.96M) and ESPN2 (0.43, 799K) on Saturday night.
Despite a less-competitive game and lower-profile opponent, Colorado’s win over Nebraska comfortably outdrew the Buffaloes’ upset of TCU in the same window a week earlier (3.8, 7.26M). It ranks as the tenth-most watched college football game ever on FOX, excluding bowl and conference championship games.
Most-watched college football games on FOX
Ratings and viewership did decline year-over-year, falling 15% and 18% respectively from last year’s matchup of Alabama and Texas (5.7, 10.60M).
This year’s matchup of the Longhorns and Crimson Tide, which as mentioned above averaged 8.76 million viewers, delivered the largest regular season college football audience on the ESPN cable networks since Ohio State-Virginia Tech on Labor Day 2015 (10.59M).
The Longhorns’ upset win peaked at 10.3 million from 10:15-10:30 PM ET and more-than-doubled last year’s comparable Kentucky-Florida on ESPN alone (2.2, 4.33M).
As one would expect, the game dominated the rest of primetime — cruising past Wisconsin-Washington State on ABC (1.3, 2.28M), UCLA-San Diego State on CBS (0.6, 1.08M) and Charlotte-Maryland on NBC (0.43, 665K). The latter of the three delivered one of the smallest primetime college football audiences ever on “Big Four” broadcast television.
Notably, Charlotte-Maryland on NBC finished not-much-higher than Cincinnati-Pittsburgh on The CW — which averaged a 0.32 and 617,000 in a similar evening timeslot.
Outside of Texas-Alabama and Nebraska-Colorado, Texas A&M-Miami was the top game of the week with a 2.2 and 4.02 million on ABC — down 9% and 10% respectively from Tennessee-Pittsburgh last year (2.4, 4.46M). The network’s coverage did not begin until after 5 PM ET — more than an hour into the game — due to late running coverage of the weather-delayed Notre Dame-NC State game, which averaged a 1.7 (+79%) and 2.93 million (+65%).
FOX placed fourth with a 1.8 and 3.38 million for Iowa-Iowa State, which despite the big lead-in from Nebraska-Colorado declined 18% and 14% respectively from last year’s Washington State-Wisconsin game (2.2, 3.92M).
CBS rounded out the top five with a 1.5 and 2.97 million for UNLV-Michigan, more-than-triple last year’s matchup of pre-Deion Colorado and Air Force (0.48, 808K).
