Two of the most storied college football programs helped FOX to one of its best-ever regular season audiences.
Saturday’s Ohio State/Oklahoma college football game drew a 3.4 final rating and 5.8 million viewers on FOX, up 143% in ratings and 154% in viewership from California/Texas last year (1.4, 2.3M) and up 113% and 119%, respectively, from UCLA/Texas in 2014 (1.6, 2.6M).
The Buckeyes’ easy win, which started 90 minutes late due to a weather delay, earned the third-largest audience for a regular season game on FOX (excluding conference championships) — trailing Notre Dame/Stanford last year (7.3M) and Michigan State/Oregon in 2014 (6.0M). FOX began airing regular season games in 2012.
Head-to-head, Buckeyes/Sooners topped Michigan State/Notre Dame on NBC (2.9, 5.0M) and USC/Stanford on ABC (1.8, 2.9M). It ranked third for the weekend among college football games, behind Alabama/Mississippi on CBS (5.0, 8.2M) and Florida State/Louisville on ABC (4.0, 6.2M), both of which aired in the afternoon.
Rain delay coverage had a 1.0 and 1.7 million.
Over on Fox Sports 1, Iowa State/TCU had a 0.2 and 280,000 Saturday afternoon — down 50% in ratings and 58% in viewership from Tulsa/Oklahoma last year (0.4, 668K) and up a tick and 11%, respectively, from the pre-rain delay portion of Pittsburgh/FIU in 2014 (0.1, 252K). That game finished on Fox Sports 2.
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 9/20)
