It was not much of a draw, but ABC’s Saturday Night Football stepped over last year’s record-low bar.
Stanford/UCLA earned a 2.4 final rating and 3.8 million viewers on ABC’s Saturday Night Football over the weekend, up 50% in ratings and 59% in viewership from UCLA/Arizona last year (1.6, 2.4M) but down 47% and 48%, respectively, from Clemson/Florida State in 2014 (4.5, 7.3M). Last year’s game was the lowest rated in the history of the Saturday night franchise.
The Cardinal’s win, which peaked at 5.6 million viewers from 11-11:30 PM ET, ranked third in viewership among Saturday’s primetime games. LSU/Auburn had 4.1 million viewers and Texas A&M/Arkansas 3.9 million, both on ESPN.
Figures do not include streaming viewership on WatchESPN. With those numbers included, the game had a slightly larger audience (3.83M, up from 3.79M).
Earlier in the day, Penn State/Michigan also had a 2.4 and 3.8 million — flat in ratings and up 1% in viewership from regional action last year (2.4, 3.7M) and up a third and 32%, respectively, from regional action in 2014 (1.8, 2.8M). With streaming viewership included, it had a slightly larger audience (3.83M, up from 3.76M).
FSU/South Florida started the day off with a 1.7 (-15%) and 2.6 million (-17%).
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 9/27)
