A blockbuster matchup of top three teams delivered big numbers for ABC.
Alabama-Florida State earned a 7.3 overnight rating on ABC’s Saturday Night Football last night, up 49% from Alabama-USC last year (4.9), up 78% from FSU-Oklahoma in 2015 (4.1), and the highest overnight for an opening weekend college football game since at least 2004.
The 7.3 edges the previous high of 7.2 for FSU-Miami on Labor Day 2005. Three of the five highest opening weekend overnights have come in the past three years, with last year’s Notre Dame-Texas game ranking third (7.0) and Ohio State-Virginia Tech in 2015 ranking fifth (6.6).
The 7.3 is also the highest for ABC’s Saturday night franchise since Notre Dame-FSU in October 2014 (8.5). The network has earned better numbers in other windows, including last year’s 10.4 for a Noon ET Michigan-Ohio State game.
Birmingham, Al., led all markets Saturday night with a 46.6 rating, followed by Jacksonville (21.6), Columbus, Ohio (18.4), Nashville (17.2) and Knoxville, Tenn. (16.6).
Earlier in the day, Michigan-Florida had a 5.0 overnight — up a tick from LSU-Wisconsin last year (4.9), up 150% from BYU-Nebraska in ’15 (2.0) and the highest overnight for an afternoon game on opening weekend since at least ’04. Overnights for the Noon ET Akron-Penn State game were not immediately available.
[Numbers from ESPN PR]
