CBS Sports aired a rare tripleheader in Week 10 of the college football season. And the three-game slate on CBS dominated the rest of college football Saturday.
At noon, the network’s broadcast of Ohio State-Rutgers averaged 3.96 million viewers, the most-watched game in Saturday’s first window. ABC ranked second with its broadcast of Clemson’s upset of Notre Dame, averaging 3.24 million viewers. Fox’s broadcast of Texas’ overtime win over Kansas State ranked third with 2.95 million viewers.
In the 3:30 p.m. ET window, the SEC on CBS rolled the competition. Georgia’s win over Missouri averaged 7.00 million viewers, topping the combined total of ABC’s broadcast of Oklahoma-Oklahoma State (3.76 million) and Fox’s broadcast of Penn State’s blowout win over Maryland (2.39 million viewers).
The most-watched game of Week 10 came in primetime, with the CBS broadcast of Alabama’s win over LSU averaging 8.82 million viewers. That was more than the combined total of the primetime games on ABC (Washington-USC, 4.45 million), NBC (Purdue-Michigan, 2.60 million), and Fox (BYU-West Virginia, 1.26 million). Notably, Fox ranked fourth in primetime, also falling a tick behind ESPN’s broadcast of Kansas-Iowa State (1.27 million).
In the late-night window, ESPN had its most-watched game of the day. The network’s broadcast of Oregon State’s win over spiraling Colorado averaged 2.77 million viewers. It’s the least-watched Buffaloes game on a Nielsen-rated network (the Pac-12 Network is not rated by Nielsen, and aired Colorado’s win over Arizona State) this season.
The CW turned in a disappointing performance in the noon window. Georgia Tech’s blowout win over Virginia averaged just 262,000 viewers, ranking eighth of nine games on Nielsen-rated networks in the timeslot.
ESPN2’s CFB Primetime with Pat McAfee whiparound broadcast also disappointed. An average of just 103,000 viewers watched the broadcast, ranking well behind the four broadcast networks and ESPN in primetime on Saturday. However, that whiparound did beat FS1’s broadcast of Utah State-San Diego State head-to-head.
In Week 11, Fox has a stacked schedule and will likely win the week with its noon broadcast of Michigan-Penn State. ESPN has Alabama-Kentucky in the same window, while ABC has Georgia Tech-Clemson.
The 3:30 p.m. ET window will be tightly contested between three networks, with ABC airing Miami-Florida State, CBS airing Tennessee-Missouri, and Fox airing Utah-Washington. In primetime, ESPN has Ole Miss-Georgia, ABC has Texas-TCU, Fox has West Virginia-Oklahoma, and NBC has Michigan State-Ohio State.
Fox also has a strong late night game, with Oregon hosting USC. Colorado will be a non-factor in “most-watched” talk this week, hosting Arizona on the Pac-12 Network.
[Data via Sports Media Watch]
