The new SEC on ABC package continues to dominate in the ratings.
According to ESPN PR, Saturday’s SEC on ABC tripleheader delivered three of the four most-watched games of the weekend.
📈 @ESPNCFB won all 4 Week 11 windows & ABC owns 12 of the top 15 CFB games on all nets this season
🏈@AlabamaFTBL–@LSUfootball | 7.9M viewers
🏈@GeorgiaFootball–@OleMissFB | 7.4M
🏈@GatorsFB–@TexasFootball | 3.9M
🏈@CanesFootball–@GeorgiaTechFB | 3.5M… pic.twitter.com/C5HaBIIgax— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) November 12, 2024
Starting at Noon, Texas’s rout of Florida averaged 3.9 million viewers on ABC (including streaming), beating out Fox’s Big Noon Saturday game featuring Ohio State blowing out Purdue (exact viewership figures were not immediately available for Fox).
Moving on to the 3:30 p.m. ET time slot, Georgia’s loss to Ole Miss averaged 7.4 million viewers on ABC (including streaming) to win the afternoon window. The game peaked at 8.0 million viewers.
The marquee game of the day, Alabama-LSU in primetime, averaged 7.9 million viewers on ABC — good for the 9th largest college football audience of the year and most-watched game Saturday. The Crimson Tide’s resounding win peaked at 9.7 million viewers.
And not to be forgotten, the Holy War between BYU and Utah averaged 2.1 million viewers in the late window on ESPN, the third most-watched late window game so far this season behind two Colorado games.
Through 11 weeks of the season, the SEC on ABC primetime window is averaging an audience of 7.00 million viewers; holding strong as the most-watched college football window this year. ABC’s 3:30 p.m. ET window is in a battle for second place, averaging 4.75 million viewers through 11 weeks but still behind Fox’s Big Noon, which was averaging an audience of 4.90 million viewers through ten weeks, with Week 11 data not yet available.
It’s shaping up to be a banner year for ABC on the back of its new SEC package. The network currently owns 12 of the top 15 college football audiences of the year with only a few more weeks for other networks to catch up.
[ESPN PR]
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.