With a playoff spot on the line, the Pac-12 Championship scored its highest ratings in five years.
Last Friday’s Oregon-Utah Pac-12 Championship Game averaged a 3.5 rating and 5.86 million viewers on ABC, marking the highest rated and most-watched edition of the game in five years (2014 Oregon-Arizona: 3.7, 6.00M).
The Ducks’ upset win trails only 2014 as the highest rated and most-watched in the short history of the Pac-12 title game (dates back to 2011).
As one would expect, it was the highest rated and most-watched Pac-12 intra-conference game this season. The previous highs were a 2.4 and 4.09 million for Oregon-Arizona State last month. Including non-conference games, it ranks second behind Oregon-Auburn on ABC in week one (4.0, 6.88M).
Ratings increased 35% and viewership 44% from last year’s Pac-12 title game on FOX (Washington-Utah: 2.6, 4.06M) and 52% and 60% respectively from the 2017 game on ESPN (USC-Stanford: 2.3, 3.66M).
Even with the increase, the game ranked fourth out of the power five conference championships, topping only the ACC Championship on Saturday night (Clemson-Virginia: 2.4, 3.97M). That is despite the game being the only conference championship to air completely unopposed by another FBS game.
Pac-12 Championship ratings/viewership, all-time
[Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 12.10, ShowBuzz Daily 12.10]
