CBS on Saturday night aired the most-watched college football game of the season with LSU-Alabama. That game drew 11.06 million viewers, topping the 10.59 million viewers seen for Ohio State-Virginia Tech on Labor Day on ESPN. LSU-Alabama also was up 22% from 9.11 million viewers for the same primetime matchup last year. The game has continued to see an increased audience since moving to primetime in '11. Saturday's game also had competition from Minnesota-Ohio State on ABC (4.73 million viewers), Michigan State-Nebraska on ESPN (3.47 million viewers), Utah-Washington on Fox (1.52 million viewers) and the main event of HBO's "World Championship Boxing," which saw Tim Bradley's ninth-round knockout of Brandon Rios draw 910,000 viewers from 10:45-11:20pm ET. Meanwhile, ABC in the 3:30pm window on Saturday drew 7.56 million viewers for Florida State-Clemson, marking the net's best figure in that late afternoon window since Florida-FSU in '12. ESPN's "College GameDay," which aired from Tuscaloosa ahead of LSU-Alabama, drew 2.23 million viewers, marking the show's best audience since it expanded to three hours in '13 (41 episodes).
|
ALABAMA-LSU REGULAR-SEASON CFB VIEWERSHIP ON CBS
|
|
YEAR
|
START (ET)
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
|
'15
|
8:00pm
|
11,063
|
|
'14
|
8:00pm
|
9,109
|
|
'13
|
8:00pm
|
11,903
|
|
'12
|
8:00pm
|
11,349
|
|
'11
|
8:00pm
|
20,011
|
|
'10
|
3:30pm
|
7,208
|
|
'09
|
3:30pm
|
6,735
|
|
'08
|
3:30pm
|
8,137
|
|
'07
|
5:00pm
|
6,281
|
|
|
|
|
BIG BET: ESPN for Tuesday's final telecast at the World Series of Poker final table averaged 1.15 million viewers, down slightly from 1.16 million viewers last year. This year's telecast lasted just over two hours, while last year's final table telecast was more than four hours. The final table in '13 drew 1.23 million viewers.
ROLLING ALONG: NFL game telecasts through Week 9 account for the the top 12 and 27 of the top 30 most-viewed telecasts on all of TV since the NFL Kickoff on Sept. 10. This past Sunday's Eagles-Cowboys "SNF" matchup on NBC drew 10.4 million viewers, which was the most-viewed Week 9 primetime game since '99. NBC's "Football Night in America" in the 7:30-8:15pm window also is averaging 9.7 million viewers, which is the program's best start since NBC re-acquired NFL rights prior to the '06 season.
The charts below list final audience figures from recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NFL: Broncos-Colts (96%) |
11/8
|
CBS
|
4:53-7:41pm
|
14.3
|
23,959
|
| "Sunday Night Football": Eagles-Cowboys |
11/8
|
NBC
|
8:31-11:58pm
|
13.6
|
23,047
|
| NFL: (singleheader) |
11/8
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:05pm
|
12.5
|
20,910
|
| NFL: (regional) |
11/8
|
CBS
|
1:03-4:35pm
|
8.1
|
13,158
|
| College football: LSU-Alabama |
11/7
|
CBS
|
8:00-11:46pm
|
6.4
|
11,063
|
| "Football Night in America" |
11/8
|
NBC
|
7:30-8:15pm
|
6.1
|
10,429
|
| College football: Florida State-Clemson |
11/7
|
ABC
|
3:33-7:04pm
|
4.7
|
7,563
|
| "Fox NFL Sunday" |
11/8
|
Fox
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
3.5
|
5,310
|
| College football: Minnesota-Ohio State |
11/7
|
ABC
|
8:05-11:39pm
|
2.7
|
4,729
|
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series:
AAA 500 (Texas) |
11/8
|
NBC
|
2:30-6:00pm
|
2.7
|
4,600
|
| College football: Notre Dame-Pitt |
11/7
|
ABC
|
12:01-3:300pm
|
2.5
|
3,844
|
| "The NFL Today" |
11/8
|
CBS
|
12:00-1:03pm
|
2.4
|
3,641
|
| College football: Arkansas-Ole Miss |
11/7
|
CBS
|
3:30-7:35pm
|
2.0
|
2,977
|
| College football: TCU-Oklahoma State |
11/7
|
Fox
|
3:30-7:30pm
|
1.6
|
2,376
|
NASCAR Xfinity Series:
O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge (Texas) |
11/7
|
NBC
|
4:20-6:30pm
|
1.5
|
2,200
|
| Formula E: Malaysia (taped) |
11/8
|
Fox
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
1.0
|
1,561
|
| College football: Utah-Washington |
11/7
|
Fox
|
7:41-11:18pm
|
0.9
|
1,518
|
| NASCAR: "Countdown To Green" |
11/8
|
NBC
|
1:30-2:30pm
|
1.0
|
1,500
|
| "Fox NFL Kickoff" |
11/8
|
Fox
|
11:00am-12:00pm
|
0.9
|
1,251
|
| EPL: Chelsea-Stoke City |
11/7
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.8
|
1,100
|
| "College Football Today" |
11/7
|
CBS
|
3:00-3:30pm
|
0.7
|
1,003
|
| ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating (taped) |
11/8
|
NBC
|
12:00-1:30pm
|
0.7
|
952
|
| "UFC Embedded" |
11/7
|
Fox
|
2:00-3:00pm
|
0.6
|
933
|
| "College Football Saturday" |
11/7
|
Fox
|
3:00-3:30pm
|
0.6
|
926
|
| NASCAR: "Countdown To Green" |
11/7
|
NBC
|
3:00-4:15pm
|
0.5
|
767
|
| "Inside College Football" |
11/7
|
CBS
|
2:30-3:00pm
|
0.5
|
731
|
| Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League (taped) |
11/7
|
CBS
|
1:30-2:30pm
|
0.5
|
659
|
| "Premier League Goal Zone" |
11/7
|
NBC
|
2:30-3:00pm
|
0.4
|
534
|
| "World of X Games: Video Premiere Show" |
11/8
|
ABC
|
4:00-5:00pm
|
0.3
|
385
|
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| "Monday Night Football": Colts-Panthers |
11/2
|
ESPN
|
8:15pm-12:26am
|
7.8
|
12,404
|
| "Thursday Night Football": Browns-Bengals |
11/5
|
NFL Network
|
8:27-11:16pm
|
5.5
|
8,790
|
| College football: Michigan State-Nebraska |
11/7
|
ESPN
|
7:03-10:45pm
|
2.0
|
3,470
|
| NBA: Clippers-Warriors |
11/4
|
ESPN
|
10:34pm-1:24am
|
1.9
|
2,850
|
| College football: Vanderbilt-Florida |
11/7
|
ESPN
|
12:01-3:27pm
|
1.8
|
2,736
|
| "Thursday Night Football Postgame" |
11/5
|
NFL Network
|
11:19-12:00am
|
1.8
|
2,645
|
| NBA: Knicks-Cavaliers |
11/4
|
ESPN
|
8:05-10:34pm
|
n/a
|
2,296
|
| "College GameDay" |
11/7
|
ESPN
|
9:00am-12:01pm
|
n/a
|
2,233
|
| "Monday Night Countdown" |
11/2
|
ESPN
|
6:00-8:15pm
|
n/a
|
2,116
|
| College football: Iowa-Indiana |
11/7
|
ESPN
|
3:30-7:03pm
|
n/a
|
1,883
|
