On a relatively quiet weekend of college football, cable topped the charts for the first time all season.
Last Saturday’s Tennessee-Alabama college football game averaged a 2.6 rating and 4.68 million viewers on ESPN, marking the highest rated and most-watched game of the season on cable. The Crimson Tide’s win also ranked as the top game of the weekend, the first time since Week 2 in 2018 that a cable game topped the charts.*
Ratings soared 98% and viewership 93% from last year (South Carolina-LSU: 1.3, 2.43M) and 61% and 59% respectively from 2019 (Kentucky-Georgia: 1.6, 2.94M). This year’s game also topped the rivals’ meeting last season, which took place in the same week but aired on CBS (2.5, 4.36M).
ESPN/ABC aired the four most-watched games of the weekend, with ABC’s tripleheader taking the next three spots. Oregon-UCLA ranked second at a 2.1 and 3.85 million, up 52% in ratings and 54% in viewership from Notre Dame-Pittsburgh last year (1.4, 2.49M). Compared to Oregon-Washington in 2019, ratings fell 9% (from 2.3) but viewership increased 6% (from 3.62M).
The Ducks’ win got an unusual lift from the preceding Illinois-Penn State game. Illinois’ nine-overtime upset averaged a 2.1 (+78%) and 3.77 million (+86%), peaking at an unusually-high 7.4 million during the overtime session. It was the most-watched Illinois game since a 2015 matchup against Ohio State (4.08M), topping the previous high set by the team’s “week zero” season opener against Nebraska (3.22M).
ABC’s Ohio State-Indiana nightcap pulled a 1.9 and 3.35 million, down 31% in ratings and 35% in viewership from Michigan-Minnesota last year (2.7, 5.12M) and down 54% and 50% respectively from 2019 (Michigan-Penn State: 4.0, 6.66M).
Rounding out the week’s top five, Northwestern-Michigan drew a 1.9 and 3.24 million in the FOX “Big Noon Saturday” window — down 44% in ratings and 48% in viewership from Nebraska-Ohio State last year, the first Big Ten game of the season (3.4, 6.18M), but up 11% and 28% respectively from 2019 (West Virginia-Oklahoma: 1.7, 2.54M).
In other action, CBS drew a 1.8 and 3.11 million for LSU-Mississippi — down 27% in ratings and 29% in viewership from last year’s previously-mentioned Alabama-Tennessee game and a season-low for the network’s 3:30 PM ET SEC window.
NBC pulled a 1.6 and 2.87 million for USC-Notre Dame, down 15% and 9% respectively from the last time the teams met in 2019 (1.9, 3.16M). Rounding out the broadcast TV slate, FOX pulled a 1.6 and 2.66 million for Oklahoma State-Iowa State, flat in ratings and down 5% in viewership from the same matchup last year (1.6, 2.81M), but up 12% and 19% respectively from Baylor-Oklahoma State in ’19 (1.4, 2.23M).
Returning to cable, Oklahoma’s closer-than-expected win over Kansas drew a 1.6 and 2.65 million on ESPN — up 162% in ratings and 165% in viewership from last year (NC State-North Carolina: 0.6, 1.00M) but down 20% and 17% respectively from Florida-South Carolina in ’19 (2.0, 3.19M). Clemson-Pittsburgh drew a 1.2 and 2.16 million later in the day, up 89% in both measures.
Coastal Carolina’s upset loss to Appalachian State Wednesday was the week’s top game on ESPN2, scoring a 0.49 (+69% from 2019) and 804,000 (+79%). The top cable game outside of the ESPN networks was Wisconsin-Purdue on BTN (734K).
* Excludes weekends in which there was a limited slate of games, such as “week zero” or last season’s week one.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 10.26]
