With ‘the best game from the best conference’ airing on ESPN, CBS was left with soft numbers for its SEC coverage last weekend.
Last Saturday’s Auburn/LSU college football game drew a 2.6 final rating and 4.2 million viewers on CBS, down 37% in ratings and 38% in viewership from Georgia/South Carolina in a later timeslot last year (4.1, 6.8M) and down 69% in both measures from Alabama/Texas A&M in 2013 (8.5, 13.6M).
LSU’s blowout win is tied as the lowest rated SEC telecast on CBS in week three of the season — traditionally the network’s first week of SEC coverage — since Alabama/South Carolina in 2005 (1.8).
All three SEC telecasts on CBS thus far have failed to score a 3.0 rating, compared to five all of last season.
Head-to-head, Saturday’s game trailed regional action featuring Northern Illinois/Ohio State on ABC (3.3, 5.3M) but edged Georgia Tech/Notre Dame on NBC (2.4, 3.7M). It was no match for the SEC’s game of the day, Mississippi/Alabama on ESPN in primetime (4.6, 7.6M).
(Sat. numbers from Sports Business Daily)
