With a down-to-the-wire finish and a playoff berth on the line, Notre Dame’s now-annual appearance on FOX hit a ratings milestone.
The Notre Dame/Stanford college football game had a 4.7 overnight rating on FOX Saturday night, the network’s highest overnight ever for a regular season college game (not counting conference championships). The previous high was a 4.0 for Michigan State/Oregon early last season.
Overall, the 4.7 is the second-highest for any college football telecast on FOX since 2010, the last time it aired BCS bowl games. Only the 2013 Michigan State/Ohio State Big Ten Championship Game had a higher rating in the metered markets (8.4).
It is also the tenth-highest overnight of the season regardless of network, and the second-highest for a game involving Notre Dame — trailing only their loss to Clemson on ABC in week five (4.8).
The Cardinal’s last-second win, which knocked Notre Dame out of playoff contention, more-than-tripled last year’s comparable Thanksgiving weekend game on FOX — Notre Dame against USC in an afternoon window (1.5). It also trounced ABC’s competing Oklahoma/Oklahoma State telecast (2.6), though overnights for that game did not include home market Oklahoma City due to inclement weather. FOX has now outdrawn ABC’s Saturday Night Football in consecutive weeks.
In other action, Friday’s Washington State/Washington game drew a 1.2 overnight on FOX — down 25% from Arizona State/Arizona last year (1.6) and down 14% from the same Washington State/Washington matchup in 2013 (1.4).
* ShowBuzz Daily reported that Saturday’s game had a 4.69 overnight rating, while Sports Business Daily reported a 4.8.
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily)
