After dominating the competition last week, the SEC continued to be a strong ratings driver for ABC. And that’s not even including Vanderbilt’s historic upset of Alabama.
For the second straight week, the SEC on ABC grew in viewership for each game as the day went along, perhaps lending credence to the idea that a network can build momentum throughout the day.
Starting at Noon, Texas A&M’s win over Missouri averaged 3.27 million viewers on ABC, beating out UCLA and Penn State on Fox’s “Big Noon,” which averaged 2.75 million viewers.
At 3:30 p.m., Auburn and Georgia averaged 4.93 million viewers in the SEC on ABC window, the second-largest audience of the day behind only ABC’s primetime game. Arkansas’ upset over Tennessee that night drew 5.29 million viewers to win the week.
ABC & @ESPNCFB won all four Wk 6 Saturday windows, including scoring the top 2 telecasts across all networks
🏈 @Vol_Football–@RazorbackFB | 5.3M viewers
🏈 @AuburnFootball–@GeorgiaFootball | 4.9M
🏈 @MizzouFootball–@AggieFootball | 3.3M
🏈 @CanesFootball–@CalFootball | 1.9M pic.twitter.com/xJRhOudNdI— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) October 8, 2024
Comparisons to last year’s numbers are mixed. The Texas A&M-Missouri game was down 58% versus last year’s comparable window, the Red River Rivalry between Oklahoma and Texas, which drew a typically strong 7.87 million viewers. Georgia-Auburn was up 63% versus Virginia Tech-Florida State last season. And Arkansas-Tennessee ticked up 3% from Notre Dame and Louisville last year.
Of course, the most notable game of the week, Vanderbilt’s upset over Alabama, aired on SEC Network which is not Nielsen-rated. That’s probably a relief for Crimson Tide fans, but per Sports Media Watch the streaming audience for the game was the third-largest in network history behind only the seven-overtime Texas A&M-LSU game in 2018 and Georgia-Missouri in 2022.
Clocking in at third most-watched last weekend is Iowa and Ohio State, which averaged 4.46 million viewers on CBS. The only other game to crack the four-million mark was Washington and Michigan which averaged 4.04 million viewers on NBC.
As for the Friday slate, Michigan State and Oregon won the night for Fox with 2.84 million viewers, the network’s most-watched game of the entire weekend. Over on ESPN, Houston and TCU averaged 1.51 million viewers.
The College GameDay bout between ACC foes Miami and Cal drew 1.92 million viewers in the late-night slot on ESPN. Ironically, the game had fewer viewers than the pregame show, which averaged 2.0 million viewers Saturday morning.
None of the week’s action cracked the top 10 most-watched games so far this season.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.