Thanks to some unusually bad numbers last year, ABC had substantial increases for college football action on Saturday.
The Week 8 edition of “Saturday Night Football,” featuring Florida State/Miami, earned a 3.1 final rating and 4.843 million viewers on ABC — up 48% in ratings and 40% in viewership from coverage featuring Texas Tech/Oklahoma last year (2.1, 3.453M), but down 28% and 31%, respectively, from coverage featuring Oklahoma/Missouri last year (4.3, 7.064M).
The telecast easily topped primetime college football on FOX (1.6, 2.521M) and corporate sibling ESPN (2.5, 4.223M).
Earlier Saturday, regional action including Texas Tech/TCU drew a 2.6 and 4.009 million viewers — up 18% in ratings and 15% in viewership from last year (2.2, 3.491M), and down 30% and 34%, respectively, from 2010 (3.7, 6.092M).
Despite losing head-to-head to Florida/South Carolina on CBS (3.1, 4.9M), the afternoon telecast edged NBC’s BYU/Notre Dame game (2.4, 3.7M).
ABC started the day with a 2.9 final rating for regional action featuring Purdue/Ohio State. There was no comparable Noon ET game last year.
(Last Saturday’s numbers from ESPN Media Zone, Sports Business Daily)
