Alabama's come-from-behind win over Georgia on Saturday finished with 17.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched SEC Championship in the game's 26-year history. It also was the most-watched regular-season college football game on any network since LSU-Alabama in '11, which drew 20.0 million viewers. Meanwhile, ABC saw a big increase for the Oklahoma-Texas Big 12 title game, which drew 10.2 million viewers on Saturday afternoon, up from 5.9 million for the Oklahoma-TCU game last year. Saturday night's ACC Championship on ABC saw a dip from '17, drawing 4.2 million viewers for Clemson's blowout of Pitt, down from 5.4 million for Clemson-Miami last year. The Big Ten Championship on Fox drew 8.7 million viewers for Ohio State's win over Northwestern, down from 12.9 million for OSU-Wisconsin last year. Friday's Pac-12 title game saw viewership increase, likely aided by a move from cable in '17 (ESPN) to broadcast (Fox) this year. Washington-Utah drew 4.1 million viewers, up from 3.7 million for USC-Stanford in '17.
HERE FOR THE HOT TAKES: ESPN's "First Take" averaged 529,000 viewers in November, marking the show's most-watched month on record. The audience also marked a 2% increase from November '17.
The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RATING
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
| NFL: Vikings-Patriots (90%) |
12/2
|
Fox
|
4:45-7:30pm
|
13.5
|
23,204
|
| "Thursday Night Football": Saints-Cowboys |
11/29
|
Fox/NFL Net
|
8:23pm
|
12.5
|
21,316
|
| "SNF": Chargers-Steelers |
12/2
|
NBC
|
8:20-11:30pm
|
10.5
|
17,830
|
| College football: SEC Championship: Alabama-Georgia |
12/1
|
CBS
|
4:00-7:00pm
|
10.1
|
17,499
|
| NFL: regional |
12/2
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:00pm
|
8.7
|
14,220
|
| NFL: singleheader |
12/2
|
CBS
|
1:00-4:00pm
|
8.3
|
13,889
|
| College football: Big 12 Championship: Oklahoma-Texas |
12/1
|
ABC
|
12:00-3:00pm
|
6.2
|
10,155
|
| "MNF": Titans-Texans |
11/26
|
ESPN
|
8:14-11:09pm
|
6.0
|
9,735
|
| College football: Big Ten Championship: Ohio State-Northwestern |
12/1
|
Fox
|
8:00-11:00pm
|
5.0
|
8,659
|
| "Football Night In America" |
12/2
|
NBC
|
7:30-8:15pm
|
4.0
|
6,645
|
| "Fox NFL Sunday" |
12/2
|
Fox
|
noon-1:00pm
|
n/a
|
4,813
|
| College football: ACC Championship: Clemson-Pitt |
12/1
|
ABC
|
8:00-11:45pm
|
2.5
|
4,236
|
| College football: Pac-12 Championship: Washington-Utah |
11/30
|
Fox
|
8:00-11:00pm
|
2.6
|
4,059
|
| College football: AAC Championship: UCF-Memphis |
12/1
|
ABC
|
3:30-6:30pm
|
2.1
|
3,321
|
| "The NFL Today" |
12/2
|
CBS
|
noon-1:00pm
|
n/a
|
3,053
|
| College basketball: North Carolina-Michigan |
11/28
|
ESPN
|
9:31-11:33pm
|
n/a
|
1,564
|
| College basketball: |
11/27
|
ESPN
|
10:07-11:50pm
|
n/a
|
1,560
|
| College basketball: Michigan State-Louisville |
11/27
|
ESPN
|
7:30-10:07pm
|
n/a
|
1,491
|
| CFP Selection Show |
12/2
|
ESPN
|
noon-4:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,400
|
| CFP Rankings Show |
11/27
|
ESPN
|
7:00-7:30pm
|
n/a
|
1,046
|
| College football: Fresno State-Boise State |
12/1
|
ESPN
|
7:51-11:29pm
|
n/a
|
1,036
|
| Golf: Hero World Challenge: third round |
12/1
|
NBC
|
2:30-5:00pm
|
0.7
|
1,031
|
| NBA: Rockets-Spurs |
11/30
|
ESPN
|
8:13-10:38pm
|
n/a
|
964
|
| NBA: Nuggets-Trail Blazers |
11/30
|
ESPN
|
10:38pm-12:05am
|
n/a
|
923
|
| College football: Sun Belt Championship: Appalachian State-Louisiana |
12/2
|
ESPN
|
noon-3:09pm
|
n/a
|
898
|
| EPL: Manchester United-Southampton |
12/1
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.6
|
863
|
| Ski & Snowboarding: Xfinity Birds of Prey (taped) |
12/1
|
NBC
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
0.6
|
813
|
| Golf: Hero World Challenge: final round |
12/2
|
NBC
|
1:00-4:00pm
|
0.6
|
800
|
| Volvik World Long Drive Championship (taped) |
12/2
|
NBC
|
4:00-5:00pm
|
0.4
|
524
|
