CBS Scores Overnight Ratings Gains For FSU-Florida, Iron Bowl

CBS Dedicates Significant Part Of Its Florida State-Florida Coverage To Tebow

CBS earned a 5.1 overnight Nielsen rating for its coverage of Florida State-Florida on Saturday from 3:30-7:00pm ET, up 21.4% from a 4.2 overnight for the comparable Auburn-Alabama game in the same window last year. The net on Friday afternoon earned a 4.8 overnight for Alabama-Auburn, up 92.0% from a 2.5 for LSU-Arkansas last year. Meanwhile, ESPN's Thanksgiving night coverage of Texas-Texas A&M earned a 3.8 metered-market rating, up 22.6% from a 3.1 rating for the same matchup last year. ABC's "Saturday Night Football," which featured Georgia-Georgia Tech and Notre Dame-Stanford, earned a 5.3 overnight rating, down 14.5% from a 6.2 overnight for the comparable Oklahoma-Oklahoma State matchup last year (THE DAILY).

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING? In St. Petersburg, Tom Jones wrote CBS during FSU-Florida "went crazy over" Florida QB Tim Tebow's last home game in Gainesville. The net "went live for his introduction as he took the field, interviewed him after the game and showed a ton of tributes in between." Jones noted no net has "ever dedicated that much coverage to a college football player," but CBS did not "go overboard ... because we're talking about, quite possibly, the greatest college football player ever." Jones: "The only blunder CBS could have made was not dedicating enough time to Tebow's remarkable career" (TAMPABAY.com, 11/29). But USA TODAY's Michael Hiestand writes CBS announcers Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson were "over-the-top in praising Tebow during coverage." Hiestand adds he hopes they "just needed to get it out of their systems before calling" Saturday's Alabama-Florida SEC Championship Game (USA TODAY, 11/30). CBSSports.com's Pete Prisco wrote, "The Tim Tebow Telecast was sick today. Enough already. He's just a football player. Might have played his third-to-last game at QB" (TWITTER.com, 11/28).

BOOTH REVIEW: In N.Y., Phil Mushnick writes, "Leave it to ESPN to form a lead college football team, Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit, that's so stuck on their own words that game after game, start to finish, they're the last to know -- if they ever find out -- what's going on." Musburger and Herbstreit in calling ESPN/ABC's broadcast of Notre Dame-Stanford Saturday "might as well have not been there." Meanwhile, Mushnick notes Lundquist "scoffed, 'Come on!,'" when a graphic appeared during FSU-Florida "noting that UF has 'outscored non-conference opponents, 190-12.'" Lundquist added that "two of those opponents, Charleston Southern and Florida International, were beaten by a total of 124-6" (N.Y. POST, 11/30). Meanwhile, the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES' Jones wrote it is a "shame" that ESPN's broadcast team of Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge "calls the ESPN prime-time game on Saturdays." Fans "don't get to hear just how good Nessler and Blackledge are because they are calling a game few fans want to watch" (TAMPABAY.com, 11/29).