College bowl season began Saturday with ESPN airing three games. The Ohio-Utah State Famous Idaho Potato Bowl had the highest rating among the three with a 1.7 overnight rating from 5:30-9:00pm ET. However, that figure was down slightly from a 1.8 overnight for the Northern Illinois-Fresno State matchup in the same bowl last year. The primetime game, featuring Louisiana Lafayette-San Diego State in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, earned a 1.5 overnight from 9:00pm-1:00am, up from a 1.3 rating for Troy-Ohio last year. The early afternoon Temple-Wyoming Gildan New Mexico Bowl from 2:00-5:15pm earned a 1.7 rating, down from a 1.9 for BYU-UTEP last year.
Listed below are overnight Nielsen ratings from weekend sports telecasts on broadcast TV.
| TELECAST | DATE | NET | TIME (ET) | RAT. |
| "ESPN Sports Saturday" | 12/17 | ABC | 4:00-6:00pm | 0.8 |
| "Third & Long" | 12/17 | CBS | 1:00-2:00pm | 0.7 |
| NCAA Basketball: Butler-Purdue | 12/17 | CBS | 2:00-4:15pm | 1.0 |
| NCAA Basketball: (regional) | 12/17 | CBS | 4:15-6:45pm | 1.4 |
| Swimming: Duel in the Pool | 12/17 | NBC | 2:00-4:30pm | 0.6 |
| Winter Dew Tour: Nike Open | 12/17 | NBC | 4:30-6:00pm | 0.8 |
| "The NFL Today" | 12/18 | CBS | 12:00-1:00pm | 2.4 |
| "NFL on CBS": (regional) | 12/18 | CBS | 1:00-4:15pm | 7.2 |
| "NFL on CBS": Patriots-Broncos (79%) | 12/18 | CBS | 4:15-7:30pm | 19.5 |
| "Fox NFL Sunday" | 12/18 | Fox | 12:00-1:00pm | 3.7 |
| "NFL on Fox": (single) | 12/18 | Fox | 1:00-4:05pm | n/a |
| Snowboarding: U.S. Grand Prix (taped) | 12/18 | NBC | 12:30-2:00pm | 0.4 |
| Winter Dew Tour: Nike Open | 12/18 | NBC | 2:00-4:00pm | 0.4 |
| "Brian Boitano Skating Spectacular" (taped) | 12/18 | NBC | 4:00-6:00pm | 0.7 |
| "Football Night in America" | 12/18 | NBC | 7:30-8:15pm | 5.1 |
| "Sunday Night Football": Ravens-Chargers | 12/18 | NBC | 8:30-11:30pm | 11.3 |
