America’s Eyes on the Buckeyes – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/16/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
ESPN’s Saturday night telecast of USC defeating Ohio State 18-15 averaged 7,243,000 households, 10,586,000 total viewers and a 7.3 rating, making it the network’s most-viewed college football game – covering both regular-season and bowl games.
The telecast was the highest-rated program of the night among households, total viewers and in every key male and adult demographic, making ESPN the number one television network – cable or broadcast – for the evening. The 7.3 rating is the highest for a college football game – regular-season and bowl games — in 15 years (Florida State at Miami averaged a 7.7 on October 8, 1994).
Combined with last week’s Labor Day telecast of Miami at Florida State, this season ESPN has already scored two of its three most-viewed college football games ever. The second and third most-viewed games both feature Miami vs. Florida State and occurred on Labor Day:
- September 4, 2006: 6,330,000 households, 9,120,000 total viewers and a 6.9 rating
- September 7, 2009: 5,820,000 households, 8,406,000 total viewers and a 5.9 rating
