Michigan-Penn State led all Week 8 college football telecasts, with ABC averaging 6.7 million viewers for the “Saturday Night Football” game. That audience also is the fifth-best viewership for the college football season to date. ESPN’s Tennessee-Alabama on Saturday, which kicked off after 9:00pm ET, was No. 2 for Week 8 with 4.2 million. ESPN also drew 445,000 viewers for UCLA-Stanford on Thursday night. That is 45% lower than Stanford-Arizona State last year, which was the Pac-12’s lone Thursday night game on the network. Meanwhile, Fox drew 2.5 million viewers for West Virginia-Oklahoma on Saturday, marking the net’s lowest audience for a 12:00pm ET kickoff this season to date. Big Ten Network on Friday night averaged 1.64 million viewers for Ohio State-Northwestern, marking the network’s fourth-best audience on record.
NOTES: NBC on Sunday afternoon drew 3.32 million viewers for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race from Kansas, up 20% from the same race last year. That increase is the best for any Cup race on NBC Sports since the net reacquired NASCAR rights prior to the ’15 season....MLB Network’s studio shows have posted gains this postseason. “MLB Central” is up 2%, “High Heat” is up 16%, “MLB Now” is up 4% and “Intentional Talk” is up 19%....FS1’s “First Things First” had its best week ever from Oct. 14-18, averaging 114,000 viewers in the 6:30-9:30am ET window.
The chart below lists viewership figures for select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NFL: Saints-Bears (64%) |
10/20
|
Fox
|
4:15-7:30pm
|
13.3
|
23,036
|
| "SNF": Eagles-Cowboys |
10/20
|
NBC
|
8:23-11:06pm
|
12.2
|
21,451
|
| "TNF": Chiefs-Broncos |
10/17
|
Fox/
NFL Net
|
8:23-11:02pm
|
8.3
|
14,015
|
| "MNF": Lions-Packers |
10/14
|
ESPN
|
8:14-11:28pm
|
7.9
|
14,000
|
| NFL: (singleheader) |
10/20
|
CBS
|
1:00-4:05pm
|
8.0
|
13,244
|
| NFL: (regional) |
10/20
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:15pm
|
7.1
|
11,882
|
| ALCS: Astros-Yankees: Game 6 |
10/19
|
FS1
|
8:00pm-12:23am
|
4.4
|
7,472
|
| "Football Night in America" |
10/20
|
NBC
|
7:30-8:14pm
|
4.2
|
7,027
|
| College football: Michigan-Penn State |
10/19
|
ABC
|
7:37-11:08pm
|
4.0
|
6,658
|
| ALCS: Astros-Yankees: Game 4 |
10/17
|
FS1
|
8:00pm-12:31am
|
3.5
|
5,928
|
| ALCS: Astros-Yankees: Game 5 |
10/18
|
FS1
|
7:00-10:15pm
|
3.4
|
5,632
|
| NLCS: Nationals-Cardinals: Game 4 |
10/15
|
TBS
|
7:58-11:19pm
|
2.8
|
4,640
|
| College football: Tennessee-Alabama |
10/19
|
ESPN
|
9:04pm-12:27am
|
2.4
|
4,248
|
| ALCS: Astros-Yankees: Game 3 |
10/15
|
FS1
|
4:00-7:57pm
|
2.5
|
3,914
|
| College football: LSU-Mississippi State |
10/19
|
CBS
|
3:30-7:00pm
|
2.4
|
3,860
|
| NLCS: Nationals-Cardinals: Game 3 |
10/14
|
TBS
|
7:30-11:13pm
|
2.3
|
3,652
|
| College football: Oregon-Washington |
10/19
|
ABC
|
3:30-7:00pm
|
2.3
|
3,619
|
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series:
Hollywood Casino 400 (Kansas) |
10/20
|
NBC
|
2:57-6:00pm
|
2.0
|
3,322
|
| College football: Florida-South Carolina |
10/19
|
ESPN
|
12:00-3:27pm
|
2.0
|
3,193
|
| College football: Kentucky-Georgia |
10/19
|
ESPN
|
5:56-8:00pm
|
1.6
|
2,936
|
| College football: Clemson-Louisville |
10/19
|
ABC
|
12:00-3:30pm
|
1.7
|
2,608
|
| College football: West Virginia-Oklahoma |
10/19
|
Fox
|
12:05-4:06pm
|
1.7
|
2,535
|
| College football: Baylor-Oklahoma State |
10/19
|
Fox
|
4:06-7:30pm
|
1.4
|
2,229
|
NASCAR Xfinity Series:
Kansas Lottery 300 (Kansas) |
10/19
|
NBC
|
3:17-6:00pm
|
0.9
|
1,324
|
| Concacaf Nations League: Mexico-Panama |
10/15
|
UniMas
|
9:30-11:34pm
|
0.7
|
1,269
|
| Liga MX: Club America-Necaxa |
10/19
|
Univision
|
9:55pm-12:04am
|
0.6
|
1,066
|
| EPL: Manchester City-Crystal Palace |
10/19
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.5
|
645
|
