In the head-to-head matchup of two top ten rivalry games, Ohio State and ABC came out with an easy win over Notre Dame and NBC.
Ohio State-Penn State earned a 6.1 overnight rating on ABC Saturday night, up 103% from last year (Clemson-VT: 3.0) and up a tick from 2016 (Louisville-Clemson: 6.0). The 6.1 is the highest college football overnight of the season, and the highest on ABC since Alabama-FSU in week one of last season (7.3).
Ohio State has now played in the top two games this season, with their matchup against TCU on ABC ranking second (4.9).
The Buckeyes’ comeback win, which peaked at an 8.2 from 11:15-11:30 PM ET, trailed last year’s meeting between the teams by 5 percent (6.4). That game, another top ten matchup, aired on FOX in the afternoon and faced little competition.
This year’s game aired opposite another top ten matchup, Stanford-Notre Dame on NBC. Notre Dame’s win earned a 2.6 overnight, up 44% from the team’s fourth NBC game last season, an afternoon matchup against NC State in week nine (1.8). It also increased 24% from NBC’s second primetime game last season, USC-Notre Dame in week eight (2.1).
Columbus led all markets for the Ohio State-Penn State game with a 43.3 rating, followed by fellow Ohio markets Dayton (26.6), Cleveland (24.4) and Cincinnati (14.6). Pittsburgh rounded out the top five (13.5). Nine markets hit double-digits for the game, including top ten Philadelphia (10.6).
By comparison, Stanford-Notre Dame topped out at a 7.4 in Indianapolis, with the Bay Area ranking second at a 4.7.
In other college football action, ABC scored a 3.3 overnight for Clemson’s near-upset at the hands of Syracuse — up 65% from last year (Northwestern-Wisconsin: 2.0) and up 22% from 2016 (Texas-Oklahoma State: 2.7).
Figures for Saturday’s other games were not immediately available.
[Numbers from ESPN PR, NBC Sports PR/Twitter 9.30]
