The ACC Championship ended a successful season of Saturday Night Football on a down note.
Clemson/Virginia Tech earned a 3.3 final rating and 5.3 million viewers in Saturday’s ACC Championship Game on ABC, down 20% in ratings and a third in viewership from Clemson/North Carolina last year (4.1, 7.9M) and down 47% in both measures from Florida State/Georgia Tech in 2014, the highest rated and most-watched edition of the game (6.2, 10.1M).
The Tigers’ win ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched ACC title game since the event last aired on cable in 2012 (1.2, 2.0M). Head-to-head, it was beaten soundly by the Big Ten Championship on FOX (5.3, 9.2M).
Despite a weaker season finale, ABC’s Saturday Night Football averaged 6.0 million viewers for the full season — up 10% from last year and the highest average for a single college football window on any network. The SEC on CBS averaged 5.7 million. Keep in mind that ABC’s two most-watched games this season, Michigan/Ohio State (16.8M) and Notre Dame/Texas on Labor Day weekend (10.9M) did not air as part of the Saturday night package.
In other action, the Temple/Navy American Athletic title game had a 1.4 and 2.1 million — down 22% in ratings and 16% in viewership from Houston/Temple last year (1.8, 2.5M) and down 50% and 49%, respectively, from Iowa State/TCU in 2014 (2.8, 4.1M).
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 12/6, ESPN)
