ESPN drew a 5.3 overnight rating for Florida State's 45-34 win over Ole Miss last night, down 20% from Ohio State's 42-24 win over Virginia Tech on Labor Day last year (6.6 overnight). That game marked ESPN/ABC's third-best Week 1 overnight on record. While down from '15, FSU-Ole Miss is expected to win the night among all broadcast and cable networks and is up big from Labor Day games in previous years, including Miami-Louisville in '14 (2.7), FSU-Pitt in '13 (3.0) and Georgia Tech-Virginia Tech in '12 (2.9). The FSU-Ole Miss game last night also set a record for a CFB game on WatchESPN, drawing 854,000 unique viewers. That passes the previous record set on Sunday night by Notre-Dame Texas, which saw 786,000 unique viewers. Including the LSU-Wisconsin game on Saturday night, WacthESPN this past weekend had three of its top five CFB streams ever.
NEW WINDOW: ABC on Sunday night drew 10.9 million viewers for Notre Dame-Texas, marking the best audience for a college football game in Week 1. This was ABC's first primetime college football telecast on a Sunday night. During the Sunday night of Week 1 of the '15 CFB season, ABC averaged 3.44 million viewers in the 8:00-11:00pm ET window for a combination of "Bachelor in Paradise" and "Castle." ABC on Sunday night peaked at 13.52 million viewers from 11:00-11:30pm as regulation concluded and the first OT began. Austin led all markets for the ABC broadcast with a 25.4 local rating, which is the market's best figure on record for an opening weekend CFB game on an ESPN network. Combined with digital viewership, Notre Dame-Texas drew 11.09 million viewers (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
PERSONAL FOUL: In N.Y., Phil Mushnick notes LSU G Josh Boutte on Saturday committed the "most vicious, violent, ill-intentioned foul" of the weekend on Wisconsin S D'Cota Dixon late in the game, and ESPN "missed it." After Dixon recorded what was essentially a game-clinching interception, Boutte "smashed the defenseless, unsuspecting player dizzy, flattening him to the ground, with a full-force forearm to the head." ESPN analyst Brian Griese said, "That’s a frustration reaction from LSU players." Mushnick notes Griese then focused on LSU QB Brandon Harris for "making a bad throw." After the announcement of the personal foul penalty, Griese and play-by-play man Steve Levy "ignored" Boutte's "plain-view assault, Griese again emphasizing a bad throw." Mushnick: "Was there no one in ESPN’s truck to demand the announcers actually respond to what that replay was designed to show?" The studio show that soon followed "showed the attack, but analyst Mark May blamed Dixon" (N.Y. POST, 9/6).
THE 'IN' CROWD: SB NATION's Alex Nicolas wrote beIN Sports had a "solid broadcast" of Saturday's New Mexico State-UTEP game, which drew "rave reviews from fans on social media and on message boards." beIN is Conference USA's newest TV partner, and its social media presence and content leading up to the game was "very encouraging." The game broadcast also was "excellent, and well-informed compared to other networks who have covered C-USA football in the past." C-USA may now have a "very strong TV partner with a professional, and knowledgeable group of folks on the front lines" (SBNATION.com, 9/4).
GUESSING GAME? In Detroit, Snyder & Manzullo notes Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh kept CB Jourdan Lewis out of Saturday's game against Hawaii as he recovered from injury, but ESPN analyst Ed Cunningham went to a break in the first half and "speculated that Lewis was out for 'discipline.'" Harbaugh later said of Lewis missing the game, "It had nothing to do with any off-field suspension. I heard about Ed Cunningham, got way out over his skis, speculating it was some kind of suspension. Jourdan Lewis is one of the finest guys we have on the team. Football character and off-the-field character. ... Just wanted to clarify that for the record" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 9/6).
SARK WEEK: In Birmingham, Matt Zenitz reported former USC coach Steve Sarkisian, who had originally signed on to be a college football analyst for FS1 this season, is "joining Alabama's staff as an offensive analyst" (AL.com, 9/5).
