Fueled by Ohio State in back-to-back weeks, FOX took the college football ratings crown once more this past weekend, beating out the season-leading “SEC on ABC.”
Ohio State-Penn State averaged 9.94 million viewers in the FOX “Big Noon Saturday” window (includes streaming data tracked by Adobe Analytics), up more than double from Kansas State-Texas last year (2.95 million) and the most-watched college football game of the weekend.
The Buckeyes’ 20-13 win edged out FOX’s Week 2 Michigan-Texas matchup (9.19 million) as the most-watched college football game on the network this season. FOX also said it was the most-watched Big Ten game on the year, but NBC averaged more than 10 million viewers across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics for its Ohio State-Oregon game earlier this season. (Presumably, FOX is making that claim on a Nielsen-only basis.)
The “SEC on ABC” ranked not far behind with 7.06 million (including ESPNU) for the annual Florida-Georgia rivalry game (7.4 million including streaming data tracked by Adobe Analytics), more-than-doubling Oklahoma State-Oklahoma on the network a year ago (3.76 million). Compared to last year’s comparable “SEC on CBS” window, viewership increased by 6% from Missouri-Georgia (7.00 million). Georgia’s 34-20 win also delivered the largest audience on record for the rivalry game.
Moving towards primetime, ABC averaged 5.561 million viewers for Texas A&M-South Carolina, up 26% from Washington-USC last year (4.45 million). The Gamecocks’ upset win marked just the third time this season that ABC’s primetime window has trailed the network’s midday timeslot.
Shifting back to Big Ten action, NBC drew 2.734 million for Wisconsin-Iowa, up 5% from Purdue-Michigan on the network last year (2.600 million). Further, Big Ten Network averaged 727,000 viewers for USC-Washington. There was no comparable window on the network last season.
Duke-Miami opened Saturday’s ABC tripleheader with 1.956 million viewers, down 40% from Notre Dame-Clemson a year ago (3.24 million).
On cable, ESPN topped out in the primetime window with a 1.433 million average for Louisville-Clemson, up 13% from Kansas-Iowa State last year (1.270 million). In the 3:30 p.m. ET window, the network drew 1.242 million for Texas Tech-Iowa State, down 29% from FSU-Pittsburgh last year (1.760 million). Ole Miss-Arkansas drew 1.180 million, down 36% from Texas A&M-Ole Miss (1.830 million).
ESPN2 would close the day out with 484,000 viewers for TCU-Baylor in primetime. There was no comparable window on the network last season.
(Programming Insider 11.6)
