On a college football Saturday marked by postponements and Masters competition, Notre Dame led the way in the ratings.
Last Saturday’s Notre Dame-Boston College game averaged a 3.0 rating and 5.14 million viewers on ABC, up 173% in ratings and 216% in viewership from week eleven last year (USC-Arizona State: 1.1, 1.63M), up 25% and 31% respectively from 2018 (Oklahoma State-Oklahoma: 2.4, 3.92M) and the top game of week eleven.
Notre Dame’s win marked the second-straight week and third of the season in which it has played in the week’s top game. It delivered the seventh-largest audience of the season and was just the eighth game to top the five million mark thus far, compared to 20 through eleven weeks last year.
The game also averaged the largest sports audience of the day, edging the third round of the Masters on CBS (4.99M).
Later in the day, ABC averaged a 2.6 and 4.69 million for Wisconsin-Michigan on Saturday Night Football — up 63% in ratings and 73% in viewership from last year (Clemson-NC State: 1.6, 2.71M) and up 8% and 21% respectively from ’18 (Clemson-Boston College: 2.4, 3.89M).
No other games last weekend cracked a 2.0 rating or three million viewers, owing in part to a schedule wracked by postponements.
The primetime Oregon-Washington State game on FOX ranked third for the week with a 1.5 and 2.73 million, down 21% in ratings and 14% in viewership from last year (Iowa State-Oklahoma: 1.9, 3.17M). ESPN’s Arkansas-Florida game, one of the few SEC contests to take place, ranked fourth at a 1.3 (+8%) and 2.44 million (+13%).
ABC’s Noon ET Indiana-Michigan State game rounded out the top five at a 1.6 and 2.44 million, down a sharp 63% and 64% respectively from last year’s much-hyped Penn State-Minnesota contest (4.3, 6.74M).
Indiana’s win topped a competitive timeslot that included double-digit gains for both Miami-Virginia Tech on ESPN (1.0, +39%; 1.96M, +60%) and Penn State-Nebraska on FS1 (0.9, +100%; 1.72M, +136%). In a rarity, FOX Big Noon Saturday ranked just fourth in the timeslot with a 0.85 (-50%) and 1.37 million (-47%) for TCU-West Virginia.
Shifting to this week’s games, Akron-Kent State averaged 957,000 viewers on ESPN Tuesday night — the most-watched edition of “midweek MACtion” since 2014 (Ball State-Northern Illinois: 1.04M).
The full list of 2020 college football ratings is available here.
