Clemson’s domination of the ACC has not been a great thing for TV.
ESPN scored a 1.4 rating and 2.45 million viewers for last Saturday’s Duke-Clemson college football game, down 13% in ratings and 17% in viewership from last year (LSU-Tennessee: 1.6, 2.95M) but up 17% and 18% respectively from 2016 (Clemson-Wake Forest: 1.2, 2.08M).
Seven of Clemson’s eight ACC conference games this season have declined from last year, the lone exception being their near-loss to Syracuse in September. Five of the last six Clemson games have declined by double-digits.
Later in the night, Arizona-Washington State scored a 1.0 and 1.57 million — up 11% in ratings and 2% in viewership from last year (Utah-Washington: 0.9, 1.54M) but down 29% and 32% respectively from 2016 (USC-UCLA: 1.4, 2.30M).
Earlier in the day, ESPN drew a 0.7 (-30%) and 1.04 million (-35%) for Auburn-Mississippi State and a 0.47 (-53%) and 733,000 (-54%) for Miami-Virginia Tech.
College Gameday from UCF had 1.82 million, down 5% from last year (1.91M) and down 13% from 2016 (2.08M). The show visited Wisconsin last year and Western Michigan in ’16.
Going back to last Thursday, Tulane-Houston scored 378,000 viewers on ESPN — down 31% from last year (Tulsa-USF: 545K), down 84% from 2016 (Louisville-Houston: 2.43M), and the least-watched college football game on ESPN this season. The previous low was 562,000 for Tulsa-Houston last month.
As for the other ESPN networks, ESPN2 topped out at a 0.42 (-48%) and 722,000 (-52%) for UAB-Texas A&M last Saturday night. ESPNU’s top game was Rice-LSU in the same Saturday night window, which had 445,000 (+8%).
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 11.20]
