CBS recorded its most-watched college football game of the 2022 season in Week 6, with the second half of its doubleheader delivering.
7.145 million viewers watched Alabama’s win over Texas A&M, the best audience for a game since Alabama-Texas in Week 2 on Fox. It’s also the fourth-most watched game of the season, behind that and the Week 1 double whammy of Ohio State-Notre Dame and Florida State-LSU. The game was down from the Aggies’ upset win over the Crimson Tide last year, which also aired in primetime on CBS in Week 6 (8.334 million viewers).
The rest of the week was a bit of a mixed bag in the face of strong MLB Wild Card viewership on ESPN’s networks. Ohio State-Michigan State on ABC in the 4 PM window was the second most-watched game of the week, averaging 4.439 million viewers. That’s up from both last week (Wake Forest-Florida State) and last year (Boise State-BYU). In the first half of the CBS doubleheader, 4.237 million tuned in for Georgia’s win over Auburn, down from the standard CBS singleheader last week and also down from the same game in the first half of the doubleheader last year. Rounding out the late afternoon window, 2.652 million watched Utah-UCLA on Fox and 1.633 million watched Texas Tech-Oklahoma State on FS1. Both were up from last week (Oklahoma State-Baylor, Michigan State-Maryland), while the Fox game was way down from last year (Penn State-Iowa) and the FS1 game was way up (San Jose State-Colorado State).
Fox again won the noon window with Michigan’s win over Indiana averaging 4.005 million viewers. That’s down from last week (Michigan-Iowa) and up from last year (Maryland-Ohio State). ABC picked up a disappointing 3.364 million for the lopsided Texas-Oklahoma Red River Rivalry game, up from last week (Oklahoma-TCU) and way down from last year’s edition of the rivalry. ESPN’s broadcast of Tennessee-LSU drew 2.959 million viewers, up from both last week (Kentucky-Ole Miss) and last year (Arkansas-Ole Miss). 1.309 million watched TCU-Kansas on FS1, up from both last week (West Virginia-Texas) and last year (West Virginia-Baylor).
In primetime, 2.525 million watched BYU-Notre Dame on NBC, with no comparable game either last week or last year. ABC slumped to 1.933 million for Clemson-Boston College, down from last week (NC State-Clemson) and last year (Michigan-Nebraska). Fox fared even worse with just 1.841 million watching Washington State-USC, up from last year (Utah-USC) with no comparable game last week. 855,000 watched Iowa-Illinois on BTN, down from last week (Indiana-Nebraska) with no comparable game last year.
[Data via ShowBuzz Daily, Sports Media Watch]
