Final Ratings: SEC Football Ratings On CBS Down 15% Through Four Games

CBS’ annual SEC football primetime telecast, which featured Alabama-Florida, led all college football broadcasts last weekend with a 4.6 rating and 7.6 million viewers. However, those figures are down from a 4.8 rating/7.7 million viewers for the same matchup last year, and down sharply from a 6.1 rating/10.5 million viewers for Florida-LSU in ’09, Tim Tebow’s final season. For four SEC football games to date, CBS is averaging a 3.4 rating and 5.4 million viewers, down 15% and 16%, respectively, from a 4.0 rating and 6.478 million viewers at the same point last year (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).

SUNDAY DRIVE: The Patriots-Raiders game last weekend earned a 34.1 local rating in Boston, marking a new Week Four record for the market, passing the previous mark set in '02 for a game against the Chargers (Patriots)....KTVI-Fox earned an 18.9 local rating in St. Louis for the Redskins-Rams game last Sunday, "marking the second week in a row their game rated lower than any of their contests last season." Through four games, Rams games are averaging a 20.8 local rating, down 17% from the same point last season (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 10/4).

NOTES: Fox finished with a 1.1 rating and 1.63 million viewers for its tape-delayed coverage of Arsenal-Tottenham Hotspur last Sunday afternoon, which marked the second of the net's three EPL telecasts. That audience was up from a 1.0 rating and 1.61 million viewers for Chelsea-Manchester United on Sept. 18 (Fox)....Versus drew just 188,000 viewers for last Sunday afternoon’s Izod IndyCar Series race from Kentucky Speedway, marking the net’s least-viewed North American IndyCar race (excluding rainouts run on a week day) since acquiring rights prior to the ’09 season (Karp)....Rogers Sportsnet finished the '11 MLB season averaging 507,000 viewers for its Blue Jays games, the net's best average ever. That figure was up 17% from '10 (Rogers)....Golf Channel earned a 0.6 overnight rating for the first round of the PGA Tour Frys.com Open yesterday, up from a 0.2 overnight for the first round last year. The net says that a "normal" round for a Fall Series event averages a 0.3 overnight (Karp)....Through two games,viewership for the Dream-Lynx WNBA Finals across ESPN/ESPN2 is up 1% compared to the first two games of the Storm-Dream Finals on ABC/ESPN2 last year (WNBA).