Army-Navy ratings were the highest in at least a quarter-century.
Last Saturday’s Army-Navy game earned a 5.2 rating and 8.4 million viewers on CBS, up 4% in ratings and 6% in viewership from last year (5.0, 7.9M) and up 16% and 18% respectively from 2015 (4.5, 7.1M).
Army’s last-second win delivered the game’s largest audience since at least 1992, topping the previous mark set last year. It may well have topped the 1992 game, which also had 8.4 million, but exact figures for that year were not available.
It was also the highest rated game in the series since at least 1995. The previous high was a 5.1 in 1999.
Ratings and viewership have steadily risen for the Army-Navy game. Since hitting an all-time low rating of 2.0 in 2008, it has hit at least a ten-year high all-but-once since. The ratings resurgence coincides with a 2009 scheduling change that moved the game to one week after conference championship weekend.
For the season, Army-Navy finished seventh in ratings and viewership — its highest rank in recent memory. Of the six games to do better, five were top ten matchups and the sixth was Ohio State-Michigan.
The full list of 2017 college football ratings is available here.
[Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 12.12]
