Unsurprisingly, college football has a new most-watched game of the season following Week 10’s games.
Georgia’s dominant win over Tennessee drew 13.059 million viewers in the traditional CBS afternoon window. It’s the fourth game this season to top ten million viewers and the second for CBS, following Tennessee’s win over Alabama in Week 7.
The SEC followed up that effort with a win in primetime, as LSU’s overtime win over Alabama drew 7.582 million viewers on ESPN. The noon window was won by a Big Ten game, but not a Big Noon game – Ohio State’s win over Northwestern drew 4.757 million viewers on ABC.
In the noon window, ESPN actually finished second for the day, averaging 2.726 million viewers for Florida-Texas A&M. Fox’s Big Noon window followed with 2.506 million for TCU-Texas Tech, with CBS coming in fourth with 1.231 million for Air Force-Army (which began at 11:30 AM). Then came ESPN2 with 1.071 million for Minnesota-Nebraska, and FS1 with 582,000 for Iowa-Purdue. BTN trailed close behind with 576,000 for Maryland-Wisconsin.
CBS controlled the 3:30 PM window, as already detailed. ABC was a distant second, attracting 2.228 million viewers for Penn State-Indiana. ESPN drew 962,000 for Oregon-Colorado, followed by 928,000 on BTN for Illinois-Michigan State. FS1 averaged 734,000 for Oklahoma State-Kansas, and ESPN2 averaged 321,000 for UCF-Memphis.
Notre Dame’s upset win over Clemson was the second most-watched game in primetime, drawing 3.217 million viewers on NBC. ABC’s less than sexy Florida State-Miami broadcast averaged 1.497 million viewers, perhaps surprisingly followed by BTN’s 1.29 million viewers for Michigan-Rutgers. 1.250 million watched Texas-Kansas State on FS1,, and 512,000 watched Auburn-Mississippi State on ESPN2. FS2 also drew a strong audience (for FS2, at least) of 281,000 for BYU-Boise State.
The late night window was sparse in Week 10. Cal-USC drew 2.037 million viewers on ESPN, and UCLA-Arizona State drew 490,000 on FS1.
