One of the SEC’s best football rivalries boosted the College World Series to a multi-year high.
Florida-LSU had a 1.1 final rating and 1.77 million viewers in Monday’s Game 1 of the College World Series final, up 55% in viewership from Arizona-Coastal Carolina last year, ratings for which were unavailable (1.1M), and up 38% and 44% respectively from Vanderbilt-Virginia in 2015 (0.8, 1.2M).
The Gators’ win delivered the largest TV audience for Game 1 of the CWS final since Vanderbilt-Virginia in 2014 (1.81M). Including the streaming audience on WatchESPN, the game had 1.82 million — topping 2014 as the most-watched opener since South Carolina-Florida in 2011 (2.2M).
Shifting to Saturday’s semifinals, Florida-TCU earned a 0.8 final rating and 1.3 million viewers — up a third in ratings and 25% in viewership from Coastal Carolina-TCU last year (0.6, 1.0M) — and LSU-Oregon State had 1.2 million earlier in the day (+72%). The latter increase comes with a caveat; last year’s comparable Arizona-Oklahoma State game aired on ESPN2 (695K).
[Numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 6.27a, 6.27b; ESPN PR/Twitter 6.27, with additional info from Son of the Bronx]
