Ratings were boosted by an SEC Championship rematch of last year's national title gameGETTY IMAGES
While college football’s most-viewed individual net (CBS) saw its best SEC audience in four years during the ’18 season, the nets with the most tonnage of games -- Fox Sports and ESPN/ABC -- saw declines. CBS averaged 5.7 million viewers for its 17 SEC games, its best mark since 6.4 million viewers in ’14 and up from just under 5 million viewers last season, which was a low mark for the network. The 5.7 million viewers marked the 10th straight year that CBS was the top net for CFB and also halted four straight seasons of declines for CBS. Boosting numbers was a rematch in the SEC Championship of last season’s national championship featuring Alabama-Georgia. That conference title game drew 17.5 million viewers, which was the best CFB game in seven years. It was also the second-best SEC title game since the event’s creation in ’92, behind only 18 million viewers for Alabama-Florida in ’09. Meanwhile, NBC, with its seven Notre Dame football games, had its best season since ’12.
MASS MEDIA: The majority of CFB games continued to air on Fox Sports and ESPN networks in the ’18 season. In the second year with part of the Big Ten package, Fox aired 37 games, while FS1 carried 44. The combined viewership for games across those networks was down 7% this season. ABC carried 45 games, and ESPN had 76, with viewership down 6% across all ESPN/ABC nets (including ESPN2 and ESPNU). ABC fell into a hole early, as the net had to compare to last season’s Florida State-Alabama opener, which was the net’s best game of ’17. Both ESPN and ABC saw viewership hit the lowest mark in well over a decade. “Saturday Night Football” on ABC remained the top primetime CFB program, averaging 5.1 million viewers, but was down sharply from 5.7 million viewers in ’17. Despite the drops, games on either ABC or ESPN won the night on Saturdays on nine occasions over the 14-week season. “College GameDay” on ESPN was relatively flat this season, but when the ESPNU simulcast numbers are added in (first time it aired on that net), viewership rose 3%.
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COLLEGE FOOTBALL REGULAR SEASON VIEWERSHIP
|
|
NETWORK
|
'18 (000)
|
'17 (000)
|
% +/-
|
|
CBS*
|
5,743
|
4,951
|
+16%
|
|
ABC
|
3,901
|
4,190
|
-7%
|
|
Fox
|
3,505
|
3,626
|
-3%
|
|
NBC
|
3,443
|
2,742
|
+26%
|
|
ESPN
|
1,893
|
2,155
|
-12%
|
|
FS1
|
739
|
819
|
-10%
|
|
ESPN2
|
656
|
646
|
+2%
|
|
ESPNU
|
190
|
227
|
-16%
|
| NOTE: * = SEC only (Navy games not included). |
TOP GAMES: CBS’ SEC Championship game regained the top spot among all CFB games after falling behind the net’s Iron Bowl telecast in ’17. The Iron Bowl slipped to No. 6 overall this season as Alabama was a heavy favorite over Auburn. Among the top 15 games overall in ‘18, ABC aired seven, while CBS had five. Ohio State was a big draw in ’18, accounting for five of the top 15 games, while Michigan and Alabama each were in three of the top 15.
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MOST-WATCHED COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAMES DURING '18 REGULAR SEASON
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|
RANK
|
GAME
|
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
|
1
|
SEC Championship: Alabama-Georgia
|
12/1
|
CBS
|
4:00-7:00pm
|
17,499
|
|
2
|
Michigan-Ohio State
|
11/24
|
Fox
|
12:00-4:15pm
|
13,200
|
|
3
|
Alabama-LSU
|
11/3
|
CBS
|
8:00-11:29pm
|
11,543
|
|
4
|
Big 12 Championship: Oklahoma-Texas
|
12/1
|
ABC
|
12:00-3:00pm
|
10,155
|
|
5
|
Ohio State-Penn State
|
9/29
|
ABC
|
7:37-11:41pm
|
9,141
|
|
6
|
Auburn-Alabama
|
11/24
|
CBS
|
3:30-7:00pm
|
9,132
|
|
7
|
Big Ten Championship: Ohio State-Northwestern
|
12/1
|
Fox
|
8:00-11:00pm
|
8,659
|
|
8
|
Army-Navy
|
12/8
|
CBS
|
3:00-6:30pm
|
8,050
|
|
9
|
Notre Dame-USC
|
11/24
|
ABC
|
8:07-11:38pm
|
7,736
|
|
10
|
Ohio State-TCU
|
9/15
|
ABC
|
8:07-11:55pm
|
7,232
|
|
11
|
Notre Dame-Michigan
|
9/1
|
NBC
|
7:30-11:12pm
|
7,091
|
|
12
|
LSU-Miami
|
9/2
|
ABC
|
7:36-11:35pm
|
6,553
|
|
13
|
Georgia-Florida
|
10/27
|
CBS
|
3:30-7:00pm
|
6,347
|
|
14
|
Ohio State-Purdue
|
10/20
|
ABC
|
7:36-11:37pm
|
6,292
|
|
15
|
Wisconsin-Michigan
|
10/13
|
ABC
|
8:00-11:30pm
|
6,038
|
