Penn State's win over Iowa on Saturday night drew a 3.1 overnight rating on ABC, making it the top-rated college football telecast of the weekend across broadcast nets. That number is up 11% from a 2.8 overnight for the comparable Stanford-UCLA game last season. For its regional window Saturday, which featured NC State's upset of Florida State, ABC earned a 2.9 overnight, up 45% from last year. ABC also saw a small increase for its late-afternoon window, drawing a 2.5 overnight for USC-Cal. Penn State-Michigan in that window last year earned a 2.4 rating. Meanwhile, CBS drew a 1.8 overnight Saturday afternoon for Alabama's 59-0 blowout of Vanderbilt, down from a 3.7 for last year's Florida-Tennessee matchup in Week 4.
STARTING STRONG: ABC earned a 0.6 overnight rating yesterday afternoon for the Sparks' 85-84 win over the Lynx in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals, marking the league's highest-rated Game 1 ever. That number is up from a 0.5 rating for Sparks-Lynx Game 1 last year. Chicago would have ranked as a top five market for yesterday's Game 1, but the local ABC affiliate stuck with Cubs-Brewers until 4:15pm CT.
The chart below lists overnight ratings from weekend sports telecasts on broadcast TV.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RATING
|
| College football: (regional) |
9/23
|
ABC
|
12:00-3:45pm
|
2.9
|
| College football: USC-Cal |
9/23
|
ABC
|
3:45-7:15pm
|
2.5
|
| College football: Penn State-Iowa |
9/23
|
ABC
|
7:30-11:15pm
|
3.1
|
| College football special: "Drive to Atlanta" |
9/23
|
CBS
|
2:30-3:00pm
|
0.4
|
| "College Football Today" |
9/23
|
CBS
|
3:00-3:30pm
|
0.6
|
| College football: Alabama-Vanderbilt |
9/23
|
CBS
|
3:30-7:00pm
|
1.8
|
| MLB: (regional) |
9/23
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:00pm
|
1.1
|
| College football: Michigan-Purdue |
9/23
|
Fox
|
4:30-7:45pm
|
2.4
|
| College football: Notre Dame-Michigan State |
9/23
|
Fox
|
8:15pm-12:00am
|
2.4
|
| EPL: Liverpool-Leicester City |
9/23
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.7
|
| PGA Tour: Tour Championship: third round |
9/23
|
NBC
|
2:30-6:30pm
|
1.3
|
| "World of X Games: Street League Skateboarding" |
9/24
|
ABC
|
2:30-3:30pm
|
0.6
|
| WNBA Finals: Game 1: Sparks-Lynx |
9/24
|
ABC
|
3:30-6:00pm
|
0.6
|
| "The NFL Today" |
9/24
|
CBS
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
3.2
|
| NFL: (regional) |
9/24
|
CBS
|
1:00-4:00pm
|
10.0
|
| NFL: Bengals-Packers (80%) |
9/24
|
CBS
|
4:25-7:30pm
|
13.8
|
| "Fox NFL Kickoff" |
9/24
|
Fox
|
11:00am-12:00pm
|
1.6
|
| "Fox NFL Sunday" |
9/24
|
Fox
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
3.7
|
| NFL: (singleheader) |
9/24
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:30pm
|
10.3
|
| "Presidents Cup Special" |
9/24
|
NBC
|
12:30-1:30pm
|
0.4
|
| PGA Tour: Tour Championship: final round |
9/24
|
NBC
|
1:30-6:00pm
|
1.5
|
| "SNF" Raiders-Redskins |
9/24
|
NBC
|
8:30-11:15pm
|
11.5
|
