The return of the SEC delivered a season-high college football audience on Saturday, but the numbers remain below normal.
Mississippi State’s upset of LSU averaged a 2.5 rating and 4.44 million viewers in Saturday’s season premiere of the SEC on CBS, marking the highest rating and viewership of the college football season. The previous highs were a 2.4 and 4.32 million for Notre Dame’s home opener against Duke on NBC.
Ratings fell 17% and viewership 10% from last year’s SEC on CBS debut, which took place one week earlier in the season (Alabama-South Carolina: 3.0, 4.95M). Versus the same week of last season, ratings still fell 17% and viewership 5% (from Auburn-Texas A&M: 3.0, 4.66M). Overall, Saturday’s game averaged fewer viewers than 12 of last year’s 16 SEC on CBS windows.
Compared to last year’s LSU-Mississippi State game, which aired on CBS in October, ratings increased 4% and viewership 15% from a 2.4 and 3.86 million.
In other SEC action, ESPN averaged a 1.5 and 2.67 million for Florida-Mississippi earlier Saturday — down 6% in ratings but up 8% in viewership from Tennessee-Florida last year (1.6, 2.46M).
The Gators’ win ranks as ESPN’s highest rated and most-watched game this season, but did not win its Noon ET timeslot. Kansas State’s competing upset of Oklahoma on FOX averaged a 1.6 and 2.68 million (itself down 48% and 43% respectively from a 3.1 and 4.73 million for Michigan-Wisconsin last year).
ESPN’s primetime Alabama-Missouri game averaged just a 1.15 and 2.09 million, up 42% and 52% respectively from last year (Oregon-Stanford: 0.8, 1.37M), but the Tide’s least-watched night game since a 2017 matchup with Colorado State on ESPN2 (1.61M). The game was outdrawn head-to-head by an NBA conference final game involving LeBron James (4.79M) and Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final (2.71M).
It was also outdrawn by ABC’s competing Florida State-Miami Saturday Night Football game, which had a 1.6 and 2.95 million — down 27% in ratings and 19% in viewership from last year (Oklahoma State-Texas: 2.2, 3.64M). The Hurricanes’ rout increased 23% and 47% respectively over last year’s meeting between the teams, an afternoon game on ABC that averaged a 1.3 and 2.01 million.
FSU-Miami ranked second among week four college football games behind Mississippi State-LSU. Third-place went to Texas-Texas Tech on FOX, which at a 1.55 and 2.72 million ranks as the season’s highest rated and most-watched Big 12 game.
In other action, ABC averaged a 0.8 (-49%) and 1.45 million (-43%) for West Virginia-Oklahoma State and a 0.6 (-45%) and 998,000 (-35%) for UCF-ECU, the latter a late replacement for its originally-scheduled Notre Dame-Wake Forest game. ESPN pulled a 0.6 (-35%) and 1.08 million (-30%) for Army-Cincinnati and a 0.45 (-49%) and 795,000 for Troy-BYU.
FS1 scored a 118% viewership jump for Iowa State-TCU (346K) while ESPNU drew its largest audience of the young season with 301,000 for Kansas-Baylor.
ESPN’s College Gameday started the day off with a season-high 1.40 million viewers, though that was still down 24% from the same week last year (1.84M).
The full list of 2020 college football ratings is available here.
