On a strong Thanksgiving weekend for ESPN and ABC, a diminished Iron Bowl helped CBS top the college football ratings charts.
Last Saturday’s Alabama-Auburn Iron Bowl averaged a 3.6 rating and 6.66 million viewers on CBS, marking the lowest rating and viewership for the rivalry in eight years (2012: 2.4, 3.90M). Ratings fell 43% and viewership 42% from their meeting last season (6.3, 11.43M).
Despite the decline, the Iron Bowl was the most-watched college football game of Thanksgiving weekend and ranks third for the season overall. Alabama has played in two of the top three games.
Ranking second for the weekend, ABC’s Notre Dame-North Carolina game averaged a 3.5 and 6.08 million on Black Friday — the most-watched college football game on the day after Thanksgiving since 2015 (Iowa-Nebraska: 6.19M). Ratings and viewership more-than-doubled Cincinnati-Memphis in the same window a year earlier (1.5, 2.51M).
Notre Dame has now played in three of the season’s ten most-watched games, with last week’s game ranking eighth. Only Georgia and Ohio State have as many appearances in the top ten.
Including Iowa State-Texas earlier in the day — which averaged a 2.1 (+24%) and 3.57 million (+26%) — ABC aired its most-watched Black Friday doubleheader (4.81M) since 2005. It also scored big gains for Penn State-Michigan on Saturday, which jumped more than 70 percent to a 2.4 and 4.09 million. Keep in mind last year’s window (Georgia-Georgia Tech) faced Ohio State-Michigan, a Thanksgiving weekend staple that this year will not take place until December 12 (if at all).
Overall, ABC’s full Thanksgiving weekend slate averaged 3.73 million (+23%), the highest in three years. That is despite double-digit declines for the other two games of its Saturday tripleheader, Pittsburgh-Clemson (1.7, 3.00M) and Utah-Washington (1.2, 2.02M).
Shifting to cable, ESPN averaged 2.59 million for its five games, its best Thanksgiving weekend average since 2015. LSU-Texas A&M led the way with a 2.2 (+38%) and 4.15 million (+41%) on Saturday, ranking third for the season on cable. It was one of four ESPN games to increase at least a third over last year, joining Oregon State’s Friday upset of Oregon (1.45, +36%; 2.80M, +59%), Michigan State’s Saturday upset of Northwestern (1.4, +289%; 2.55M, +339%) and Kentucky-Florida (1.4, +40%; 2.51M, +42%).
Over on FOX, Nebraska-Iowa led the way with a 1.5 and 2.69 million on Black Friday — down 17% in ratings and 7% in viewership from Texas Tech-Texas a year ago (1.8, 2.89M). All four FOX windows declined from last year, no real surprise given the quality of last year’s matchups — which included Bedlam and the Apple Cup along with Ohio State-Michigan.
The full list of 2020 college football ratings is available here.
