Michigan-Oklahoma leads the way for CFB Week 2 viewership

Week 2 of the college football season didn’t produce the same eye-popping numbers of Week 1, but one game stood out from the rest.

Oklahoma’s win over Michigan on Saturday averaged 9.7 million viewers in primetime on ABC, making it far and away the most-watched college football game of the week. The audience peaked at 10.9 million viewers. The game was ABC’s most-watched Week 2 contest since 2006 and more than tripled the viewership of last year’s comparable window (Tennessee-NC State, 2.96 million viewers).

Both of ABC’s afternoon windows also saw year-over-year increases. Ole Miss-Kentucky averaged 4.8 million viewers at 3:30 p.m. ET, up 76% from South Carolina-Kentucky last season (2.73 million viewers). San Jose State-Texas averaged 3.7 million viewers on ABC in the noon ET window, up 32% versus Arkansas-Oklahoma State a year ago (2.8 million viewers).

Over on Fox, Big Noon Saturday between Iowa and Iowa State averaged 4.28 million viewers, down 53% from last year’s marquee matchup between Texas and Michigan (9.19 million viewers). Later in the afternoon, Delaware-Colorado averaged 2.69 million viewers on Fox, up 29% versus Baylor-Utah last year (2.08 million viewers).

CBS’s mid-afternoon window stayed relatively flat year-over-year. Oregon’s blowout win over Oklahoma State averaged 2.32 million viewers, up marginally versus Iowa State-Iowa last year (2.28 million viewers).

Both ESPN and Fox are off to strong starts year-to-date. ESPN’s family of networks are off to their best two-week start since 2009, averaging 3.2 million viewers per game. Fox’s flagship window, Big Noon Saturday, is up 52% year-to-date on the back of a massive viewership number from Week 1’s Texas-Ohio State game.

Of course, all viewership this season will benefit from favorable comparisons as a result of Nielsen’s updated methodology. This year is the first in which Nielsen is implementing its Big Data + Panel measurements, and also the first to include expanded out-of-home viewing (introduced in February). Both changes will serve to increase live sports viewership figures.