As we approach the end of the 2022 college football season, viewership in Week 12 was dominated by one network.
ABC had the top two windows of the week, winning both the noon and 3:30 PM timeslots. Ohio State-Maryland in the latter was the week’s most-watched game, with 6.599 million tuning in. That’s up from last week (Nebraska-Michigan) and last year (Nebraska-Wisconsin). At noon, Illinois-Michigan drew 5.470 million viewers, up last week (Notre Dame-Navy) and last year (Michigan State-Ohio State).
ESPN completed the window sweep for Disney networks in primetime, averaging 4.867 million viewers for Tennessee-South Carolina. That’s up from last week (Georgia-Mississippi State) and last year (Auburn-South Carolina).
Fox’s Big Noon window averaged 4.347 million viewers for TCU-Baylor, up from last week (Indiana-Ohio State) and last year (Iowa State-Oklahoma). ESPN drew 1.631 million viewers at noon for Wisconsin-Nebraska, down from last week (LSU-Arkansas) and up from last year (Wake Forest-Clemson). Navy-UCF began at 11 AM on ESPN2 and averaged 610,000 viewers, down from last week (Purdue-Illinois) and last year (Texas-West Virginia). Northwestern-Purdue on FS1 drew just 209,000 viewers, down from last week (Oklahoma-West Virginia) and down from a somewhat comparable game last year (Illinois-Iowa, started at 2 PM ET).
Splitting the two windows, Arizona State-Oregon State averaged 484,000 on ESPN with a 2:15 PM ET kick time. That’s down from the noon kick and up from the later kick last week, and down from each game last year.
The dominant SEC on CBS window fell to 4.482 million viewers for Georgia-Kentucky, down from last week (Alabama-Ole Miss) and last year (Arkansas-Alabama). Fox’s broadcast of Iowa-Minnesota averaged 2.496 million viewers, up from last week (Maryland-Penn State) and last year (UCLA-USC). With a 2:30 PM ET start, NBC drew just 1.265 million viewers for Notre Dame-Boston College, with no comparable game last week and down from last year (Notre Dame-Georgia Tech). Miami-Clemson on ESPN picked up 1.142 million viewers, down from last week (Louisville-Clemson) and up from last year (SMU-Cincinnati). Texas-Kansas averaged 940,000 on FS1, down from last week (Wisconsin-Iowa) and up from a somewhat comparable game last year (Baylor-Kansas State, started at 5:30 PM ET). On BTN, Penn State-Rutgers averaged 856,000 viewers, up from last week (Northwestern-Minneota) and down from last year (Michigan-Maryland and Minnesota-Indiana).
In primetime, Fox delivered its best audience of the day with 4.528 million watching USC-UCLA, up from last week (Washington-Oregon) and last year (Oklahoma State-Texas Tech). Oklahoma State-Oklahoma averaged 3.058 million on ABC, down from last week (TCU-Texas) and last year (Oregon-Utah). ESPN2 again straddled the primetime window with a pair of games, averaging 732,000 for Georgia Tech-North Carolina at 5:30 PM and 848,000 for UAB-LSU at 9 PM. Both were up from last week’s North Carolina-Wake Forest primetime game, and with the latter up from ULM-LSU at 9 PM last year. FS1 averaged 545,000 for Texas Tech-Iowa State, up from last week (Kansas State-Baylor), down from a 5:30 PM ET kick last year, and up from a 9 PM ET kick.
In the late night window, Utah-Oregon averaged 2.544 million on ESPN, up from last week (Stanford-Oregon) and last year (Arizona State-Oregon State).
[Data via ShowBuzz Daily, Sports Media Watch]
