ABC’s Saturday Night Football got off to a much better start than last year.
Saturday’s Auburn-Oregon college football game averaged a 4.0 rating and 6.86 million viewers on ABC, — up 48% in ratings and 51% in viewership from Louisville-Alabama last year (2.7, 4.54M), but down 42% and 44% respectively from Alabama-Florida State in 2017, a matchup of the nation’s #1 and #3 teams (6.9, 12.34M).
Keep in mind the game faced significantly less competition than last year, when coverage aired opposite a Michigan-Notre Dame game on NBC (7.09M).
The Tigers’ win, which peaked with 8.4 million viewers from 11-11:15 PM ET, delivered the largest audience for any sporting event since the MLB All-Star Game in July (8.14M). It topped every game of the NFL preseason, none of which exceeded 6.24 million.
Even with the strong numbers, the game topped only Louisville-Alabama last year and FSU-Oklahoma State in 2014 (6.03M) as the least-watched Saturday Night Football opener since 2010 (LSU-UNC: 4.30M).
In other action, ESPN drew a 1.0 and 1.82 million for Georgia-Vanderbilt in the same Saturday night window — up 67% in ratings and 81% in viewership from last year (Cincinnati-UCLA: 0.6, 1.01M) and up 11% and 6% respectively from 2017 (Appalachian State-Georgia: 0.9, 1.72M). ESPN was originally scheduled to air Boise State-Florida State in that window, but that game was moved up to Noon ET because of a hurricane.
Earlier in the day, Alabama-Duke averaged a 3.1 overnight rating on ABC — down 14% from last year (Auburn-Washington: 3.6) and down 38% from 2017 (Michigan-Florida: 5.0).
FOX averaged a 2.1 for FAU-Ohio State in the premiere of its “Big Noon Saturday” window, up 91% from FAU-Oklahoma in the same window last year (1.1). It was the top game in the Noon ET window, though ESPN noted in a Sunday press release that its four networks (ABC, ESPN, ESPNU and ESPNEWS) grossed a 3.4 in that slot.
