College football’s biggest rivalry delivered a season-high overnight rating on FOX.
Saturday’s Michigan-Ohio State college football game scored an 8.0 overnight rating on FOX, up 19% from last year (6.7) but down 23% from the rivals’ 2016 meeting on ABC, when both teams ranked in the top three (10.4).
The 8.0 is the highest college football overnight rating of the season. The previous high was 6.7 for Alabama-LSU on CBS earlier this month.
Excluding bowls, the 8.0 tied the second-highest college football overnight in Fox Sports history, matching last year’s Ohio State-Wisconsin Big Ten Championship. The 2013 Ohio State-Michigan State title game holds the top spot (8.4).
It also ranks as the fourth-highest Ohio State-Michigan overnight this century, behind 2016, 2006 (13.7) and 2002 (8.5).
The Auburn-Alabama Iron Bowl ranked second for the weekend with a 5.4 overnight on CBS, down 31% from last year (7.8), but up 15% from 2016 (4.7). The 5.4 is the second-highest for the game in the past four years.
In other action Saturday, Notre Dame-USC scored a 5.1 overnight — up 55% from last year (Notre Dame-Stanford: 3.3) and up 31% from 2016 (Florida-FSU: 3.9).
The 5.1 is the highest for the rivalry since 2012, when then-#1 Notre Dame clinched a national championship berth (10.0). Overnights increased 143% from last year’s meeting on NBC (2.1) and 38% from 2016 on NBC (3.7). The 2016 game aired in the afternoon.
No data will be reported for the seven-overtime LSU-Texas A&M game Saturday night, which did not air on a Nielsen-rated network.
On Friday, Oklahoma-West Virginia drew a 3.4 overnight on ESPN (+162%), the network’s highest for a Friday game since 2010. The 3.4 is the highest for a Black Friday game on any network since 2015 (Iowa-Nebraska: 3.5, ABC).
As previously reported, the competing Apple Cup had a 2.6 overnight on FOX.
In other action, UCF-USF had a 1.2 on ESPN Friday afternoon (+140%) and Mississippi State-Mississippi a 0.5 on Thanksgiving night.
[Numbers from Fox Sports PR/Twitter 11.26, ESPN PR, CBS Sports PR]
