With last year’s schedule considerably stronger, ESPN college football ratings took a major hit last weekend.
LSU-Tennessee drew a 1.6 rating and 2.9 million viewers on ESPN last Saturday night, up a third in ratings and 42% in viewership** from Clemson-Wake Forest last year (1.2, 2.076M) and up 23% and 41%** respectively from Mississippi State-Arkansas in 2015 (1.3, 2.082M).
ESPN’s Nielsen ratings now include streaming viewership on television; comparisons to last year’s TV-only numbers are noted with an asterisk (**).
The Tigers’ blowout win was the exception to a weekend of big declines for ESPN.
Earlier in the day, ESPN drew a 1.0 (-66%) and 1.61 million (-67%) for Oklahoma-Kansas and a 1.0 (-73%) and 1.59 million (-73%) for Texas-West Virginia. The big declines are no surprise considering last year’s line-up featured high-profile Big Ten teams — Indiana-Michigan (2.9, 4.9M) and Ohio State-Michigan State (3.7, 6.0M).
Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State all played on a Fox Sports network last week.
In Saturday’s nightcap, Utah-Washington had a 0.9 and 1.5 million — down 36% in ratings and 35% in viewership from USC-UCLA last year (1.4, 2.4M).
ESPN also posted a big decline for its Thursday game, with Tulsa-USF down 76% in ratings (1.53 to 0.37) and 78% in viewership (2.5M to 545K) from Louisville-Houston a year ago.
As for the other ESPN networks, ESPN2 topped out at a 0.8 and 1.5 million for Texas A&M-Mississippi — down 47% in ratings and 38% in viewership from an Alabama game last year (1.5, 2.4M). ESPNU’s top draw was N.C. State-Wake Forest with 412,000 (-42%**).
Last week’s college football ratings chart is available here.
[Numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 11.22]
