The return of the annual Texas-Oklahoma game to broadcast TV was a boon for the game’s noon ET audience. Fox, airing the matchup for the first time, drew 5.61 million viewers, marking the Red River Rivalry’s best audience since ABC drew 6.53 million viewers in ’11. Last year, ESPN in the 3:30pm window drew 3.62 million viewers. FS1 aired the game at noon in ’16, drawing 2.79 million viewers for the matchup, which was also the first time the game had been off ABC in 18 years. Texas-Oklahoma is Fox’ best CFB game this season to date. Fox Sports Go had an average minute audience of 86,765 viewers, which is the streaming platform’s best CFB game this season and best Big 12 game on record. It also is Fox Sports Go’s third-best CFB stream all-time, behind only last season’s Penn State-Ohio State and Ohio State-Michigan games.
|
RED RIVER RIVALRY AUDIENCE TREND
|
|
YEAR
|
NET
|
START (ET)
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
|
'18
|
Fox
|
12:00pm
|
5,608
|
|
'17
|
ESPN
|
3:30pm
|
3,619
|
|
'16
|
FS1
|
11:58am
|
2,788
|
|
'15
|
ABC
|
12:00pm
|
4,992
|
|
'14
|
ABC
|
12:01pm
|
4,236
|
|
'13
|
ABC
|
12:00pm
|
4,713
|
|
'12
|
ABC
|
12:00pm
|
5,400
|
|
'11
|
ABC
|
12:00pm
|
6,533
|
PIGGYBACK RIDES: Following Red Sox-Yankees Game 1 on Friday night, TBS averaged around 700,000 viewers for ELeague coverage, marking the most-viewed esports program on cable TV to date. The telecast featuring the game “Counter Strike: Global Offensive” aired from 11:37pm-12:38am ET. ELeague now occupies the top three spots on cable TV all-time for esports telecasts. Meanwhile, leading into Saturday night’s UFC 229 on PPV, which featured Khabib Nurmagomedov-Conor McGregor, FS1 averaged 1.31 million viewers for prelim fights. That figure is up from 653,000 viewers on FX on the same weekend last year for the prelims of UFC 216, and marks the biggest UFC prelims audience in nearly two years. Saturday also marks FS1’s 10th best UFC prelims on record. FS1 on Thursday also drew 403,000 viewers for “Lock It In,” marking the sports gambling show’s best figure yet for a first-run episode on the net. On Sunday, on the heels of CBS’ NFL singleheader weekend, PBR had its best viewership of the ’18 season on CBS from 5:00-6:00pm. The event from Milwaukee averaged 2.13 million viewers.
NOTES: The NBA said that the Mavericks-76ers game in Shanghai on Oct. 5 drew 42.7 million unique viewers on CCTV5, the most-viewed NBA game in China since '14.
The chart below lists final audience figures for select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RATING
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NFL: Vikings-Eagles (82%) |
10/7
|
Fox
|
4:25-7:00pm
|
12.2
|
21,044
|
| "SNF": Cowboys-Texans |
10/7
|
NBC
|
8:23-11:48pm
|
10.7
|
18,588
|
| NFL: (regional) |
10/7
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:15pm
|
8.2
|
13,655
|
| "MNF": Chiefs-Broncos |
10/1
|
ESPN
|
8:16-11:23pm
|
7.9
|
13,535
|
| NFL: (singleheader) |
10/7
|
CBS
|
1:00-4:05pm
|
8.0
|
13,330
|
| "TNF": Colts-Patriots |
10/4
|
Fox/
NFL Net
|
8:23-11:04pm
|
8.0
|
13,273
|
| "Football Night in America" |
10/7
|
NBC
|
7:30-8:14pm
|
4.0
|
6,734
|
| NL Wild Card: Rockies-Cubs |
10/2
|
ESPN
|
8:00pm-1:10am
|
3.8
|
6,462
|
| AL Wild Card: Yankees-A's |
10/3
|
TBS
|
8:00-11:47pm
|
3.8
|
6,194
|
| College football: Texas-Oklahoma |
10/6
|
Fox
|
12:00-3:45pm
|
3.5
|
5,608
|
| ALDS: Red Sox-Yankees: Game 1 |
10/5
|
TBS
|
7:24-11:18pm
|
3.4
|
5,571
|
| ALDS: Red Sox-Yankees: Game 2 |
10/6
|
TBS
|
7:57-11:53pm
|
3.0
|
5,059
|
| College football: LSU-Florida |
10/6
|
CBS
|
3:30-7:15pm
|
2.9
|
4,703
|
| "Fox NFL Sunday" |
10/7
|
Fox
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
3.0
|
4,515
|
| College football: Notre Dame-Virginia Tech |
10/6
|
ABC
|
8:07-11:47pm
|
2.7
|
4,473
|
| College football: Indiana-Ohio State |
10/6
|
Fox
|
3:30-7:00pm
|
2.5
|
3,988
|
| NLDS: Dodgers-Braves: Game 3 |
10/7
|
FS1
|
8:00-11:48pm
|
1.8
|
3,022
|
| "The NFL Today" |
10/7
|
CBS
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
2.0
|
3,005
|
| College football: Florida State-Miami |
10/6
|
ABC
|
4:29-7:45pm
|
1.8
|
2,810
|
| NL West tiebreaker: Rockies-Dodgers |
10/1
|
ESPN
|
4:16-7:33pm
|
n/a
|
2,688
|
| College football: Kentucky-Texas A&M |
10/6
|
ESPN
|
7:00-10:36pm
|
1.4
|
2,547
|
| NL Central tiebreaker: Brewers-Cubs |
10/1
|
ESPN
|
1:00-4:16pm
|
n/a
|
2,532
|
| ALDS: Astros-Indians: Game 2 |
10/6
|
TBS
|
4:30-7:57pm
|
1.6
|
2,497
|
| College football: Maryland-Michigan |
10/6
|
ABC
|
12:00-12:15pm;
1:00-4:30pm
|
1.5
|
2,329
|
| PBR: Ariat Invitational (Milwaukee) |
10/7
|
CBS
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
1.4
|
2,126
|
| College football: Washington-UCLA |
10/6
|
Fox
|
7:54-10:55pm
|
1.3
|
2,027
|
| "Fox NFL Kickoff" |
10/7
|
Fox
|
11:00am-12:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,176
|
| Liga MX: UNAM Pumas-Chivas |
10/6
|
Univision
|
10:11pm-12:16am
|
0.6
|
1,089
|
| Liga MX: Club America-Tigres UANL |
10/6
|
Univision
|
7:55-10:11pm
|
0.5
|
983
|
| EPL: Newcastle-Manchester United |
10/6
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.5
|
789
|
| Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Keeneland |
10/7
|
NBC
|
4:30-6:00pm
|
0.5
|
712
|
| Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Keeneland |
10/6
|
NBC
|
4:30-6:00pm
|
0.5
|
711
|
| Lucas Oil Drag Boat Racing Series (taped) |
10/6
|
CBS
|
1:30-2:30pm
|
0.5
|
620
|
| "World of X Games" |
10/7
|
ABC
|
4:00-5:00pm
|
0.3
|
366
|
| Premiership Rugby: Saracens-Harlequins |
10/6
|
NBC
|
2:30-4:30pm
|
0.3
|
359
|
