ESPN college football ratings took a hit in week eight.
ESPN scored a 1.7 rating and 2.6 million viewers for last Saturday’s Louisville-Florida State game, down 15% in ratings and 22% in viewership from Wisconsin-Iowa last year (2.0, 3.3M). ESPN’s Nielsen ratings now include streaming viewership; all comparisons are to last year’s TV+streaming numbers unless otherwise noted.
Despite the decline, the Cardinals’ win was the weekend’s top college football game on cable.
The Syracuse-Miami game that followed had a 1.3 and 2.1 million, ranking second for the week. There was no comparable game last year. Overall, the ESPN family of networks aired the top ten games on cable in week eight.
Shifting to the night games, Colorado-Washington State had a 0.8 and 1.4 million — down 50% in ratings and 49% in viewership from Missisisppi-LSU in an earlier window last year (1.6, 2.8M). The Cougars’ win delivered ESPN’s second-smallest Saturday audience all season, ahead of their win over Boise State in week two (1.3M).
Rounding out the Saturday slate, LSU-Mississippi State had a 1.1 (-12%) and 1.9 million (-11%**). It aired opposite Michigan-Penn State on ABC (3.9, 7.0M) and Yankees-Astros Game 7 on FS1 (5.4, 9.9M).
The declines were not limited to Saturday. Memphis-Houston had a mere 0.38 and 565,000 (-60%) on ESPN last Thursday — the network’s least-watched game in any window this season, including “Week 0” back in August.
In other action, ESPN2 topped out at a 0.5 and 813,000 for Iowa-Northwestern — down 38% and 37%** respectively from Texas-Kansas State in the same Noon ET slot last year (0.8, 1.3M). Figures for ESPNU were not immediately available.
The full week’s college football TV ratings are here.
** Comparison is to TV-only audience.
[Wknd. numbers from ESPN, ShowBuzz Daily 10.24]
