A thriller between playoff contenders Oklahoma and Texas delivered the largest “Red River Rivalry” audience in 14 years.
Saturday’s Texas-Oklahoma “Red River Rivalry” averaged a 4.2 rating and 7.87 million viewers across ABC (3.9, 7.31M) and a Pat McAfee simulcast on ESPN2 (0.30, 559K), marking the largest audience for the annual game since 2009 (8.71M). Keep in mind that excludes the rivals’ meeting in the 2018 Big 12 Championship Game (10.16M).
Oklahoma’s nail-biting win more-than-doubled last year’s matchup, a 40-0 Texas rout (1.8, 3.36M).
The game ranked as the most-watched of the college football weekend, topping the second-place Alabama-Texas A&M game on CBS (3.9, 7.23M). (Colorado, whose games have finished either first or second for every week of the season, did not play on Nielsen-rated television Saturday.)
Alabama’s narrow win delivered the largest college football audience of the season on CBS and increased 67% and 71% respectively from Auburn-Georgia in the same window last year (2.3, 4.24M).
Both games placed in the top ten for the season, with Texas-Oklahoma seventh and Alabama-Texas A&M tenth. Ten games have averaged at least seven million viewers this season, more than double the same point last year (four).
Placing third for the week, Louisville’s upset of Notre Dame averaged a 2.8 and 5.12 million on ABC’s Saturday Night Football — more-than-double Clemson-Boston College a year ago (1.1, 1.93M). Compared to Notre Dame’s narrow escape against Duke the previous week, which aired in the same Saturday night window, ratings and viewership were slightly off from a 2.9 and 5.32 million.
Ohio State’s win over Maryland, which was competitive in the first half, ranked fourth for the week with a 2.6 and 4.51 million on FOX “Big Noon Saturday” — up 12% and 13% respectively from last year’s Michigan-Indiana game (2.3, 4.01M).
Rounding out the top five, Kentucky-Georgia scored a 1.6 and 3.19 million on ESPN in primetime. The network did not carry a primetime game last year due to the baseball playoffs. Its lead-out, a double-overtime matchup of USC and Arizona that ended after 2 AM ET, scored a 1.4 and 2.55 million, more-than-doubling Oregon State-Stanford a year ago (0.6, 1.08M).
ESPN also drew a 1.3 and 2.34 million for LSU-Missouri — down double-digits from Tennessee-LSU last year (1.7, 2.90M) — and a 0.53 and 987,000 for Syracuse-North Carolina. Its Friday night Kansas State-Oklahoma game clocked in at a 1.3 and 2.27 million, cruising past Nebraska-Illinois on FS1 (0.7, 1.36M).
In other action, FOX scored its two smallest audiences of the season with a 0.8 and 1.45 million for UCF-Kansas and a 0.44 and 737,000 for Fresno State-Wyoming. Both games declined sharply from last year’s equivalent Pac-12 matchups (Utah-UCLA: 1.5, 2.65M; Washington State-USC: 1.0, 1.84M).
NBC drew a 1.6 and 3.06 million for Michigan-Minnesota in primetime Saturday, its most-watched “Big Ten Saturday Night” game since week one.
A big lead-in from Oklahoma-Texas could not prevent a steep decline for ABC’s Virginia Tech-Florida State lead-out, which at a 1.7 and 3.02 million was no match for last year’s higher-profile Ohio State-Michigan State matchup (2.4, 4.44M).
The full list of week six college football ratings can be seen here.
