Fox Earns 9.4/14 Overnight For First “BCS Selection Show”

Fox Earns 9.4/14 Overnight For First “BCS Selection Show”

Fox earned a 9.4/14 overnight Nielsen rating for last night’s “BCS Selection Show.” The show started at 7:50, but ratings were measured from 7:45-8:30pm ET. ABC earned a 1.8/3 overnight for its telecast of last year’s BCS selection show, which aired from 5:00-6:00pm. Fox was boosted by a 19.1 for Cowboys-Giants in its 4:15pm ET window. If that overnight holds, it will be the highest-rated NFL regular-season game of the season. Up against Fox’ selection show, NBC’s “Football Night in America” earned a 4.3 overnight from 7:30-8:15, down 17.3% from its overnight average of 5.2. NBC earned a 10.9/17 overnight for Seahawks-Broncos, up 1% from a 10.8 for Seahawks-Eagles on ABC’s “MNF” during Week 13 last season.

BREAKING NEWS: While Fox has the exclusive rights to unveil the BCS matchups, NBC’s Bob Costas, citing an online L.A. Times story, announced at the beginning of NBC’s “Football Night In America” at 7:00pm ET that Florida had overtaken Michigan for second place in the BCS for the opportunity to play Ohio State in the BCS National Championship Game. National radio began citing the L.A. Times report shortly after 3:00pm (THE DAILY). USA TODAY’s Michael Hiestand writes the BCS’ “quirks at least managed to give this weekend’s TV more oomph.” Since USC was knocked out of the No. 2 spot after losing to UCLA on Saturday, both Florida and Michigan were possibilities to be chosen to play Ohio State. Joe Buck opened “Fox NFL Sunday” by saying, “Thanks to UCLA, we got a show!” But Hiestand writes the selection show “was almost dreary. It had snappy highlights packages, and host Chris Rose seemed awake. But the main analysts — Barry Alvarez and Charles Davis — who’ll also call the BCS title game — didn’t add much” (USA TODAY, 12/4).

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS: The chart below shows ratings for Saturday’s college football action.

NET	GAME	'06	'05	% +/-
ABC	ACC Championship: Wake Forest-Georgia Tech	4.0	5.6	-28.6%
ABC	USC-UCLA	8.2	7.2	13.9%
ABC	Big XII Championship: Nebraska-Oklahoma	4.2	4.7	-10.6%
CBS	Army-Navy	2.6	3.0	-13.3%
CBS	SEC Championship: Arkansas-Florida	4.7	3.9	20.5%

NOTES: The Big XII Championship was played at 1:00pm ET in ’05, while the ACC Championship was at 8:00pm. Those times were reversed this year. The other games were played at the same time as last year –- Army-Navy at 2:30pm, USC-UCLA at 4:30pm and the SEC Championship at 6:00pm (THE DAILY).