Fighting Irish-Hurricanes and Crimson Tide-Bulldogs Ranks Among Top 10 Highest Games of the Season

ABC and ESPN Air Two of Three Highest Games of the Week; Beat Fox Head-to-Head in Prime Time by 114% and 81%

Miami, Fla. Delivers for ABC and ESPN: ABC’s Saturday Night Football Draws Big Local Rating in Miami; College GameDay From University of Miami Draws Show’s Highest Rating of the Season



ABC and ESPN led the way in prime time in week 11 across all networks, as Saturday Night Football featuring Notre Dame at Miami set the pace and Alabama at Mississippi State provided a new cable rating season high. The two games were among the three highest-rated games of the week across all networks and beat Fox head-to-head in prime time. Across the entire 2017 season, both games rank among the top 10 highest-rated games.

Notre Dame at Miami Among Season’s Highest-Rated Games; Saturday Night Football Window Up 13% Year-Over-Year

ABC’s Saturday Night Football featuring Notre Dame at Miami (8 p.m.) delivered a 4.5 overnight, the highest-rated prime time game of week 11 across all networks and potentially the most-watched game of the week when viewership numbers are reported later this week. The overnight for the Hurricanes’ convincing victory is the sixth highest overnight of the season across all networks and up 13% year-over-year from SNF’s week 11 telecast last season (Michigan at Iowa). The Fighting Irish-Hurricanes matchup beat Fox’ prime time telecast head-to-head by 114%, also a matchup top 10 ranked teams (TCU at Oklahoma).

Miami, Fla., Draws Impressive Local Interest

Miami, Fla., was the No. 1 local market, earning a 15.6 rating. The rating is the market’s second highest on record for a regular season game on ESPN’s networks*. The complete top 10:

Rank Rating Market 1 15.6 Miami 2 10.0 Columbus 3 9.2 West Palm Beach 4 8.9 Orlando 5 8.4 Jacksonville 6 8.3 Ft. Myers 7 7.7 Greenville 8 7.5 Cincinnati 7.5 Tampa 10 7.4 Indianapolis

Alabama at Mississippi State Thriller is Cable’s Highest-Rated Game of the Season; Second Best SEC vs. SEC Game Across All Networks

ESPN’s prime time telecast of Alabama at Mississippi State (7 p.m.) delivered a 3.8 overnight, the highest-rated game on cable this season and the second highest rated SEC vs. SEC game this season across all networks. ESPN was up a massive 192% year-over-year from last season’s comparable window (LSU at Arkansas), while also beating the aforementioned Fox game by 81%.

Additional highlights:

Birmingham, Al., Leads the Way Among All Markets: Birmingham, Al., was the No. 1 local market, drawing an impressive 44.4 rating. The complete top 10:

Rank Rating Market 1 44.4 Birmingham 2 13.1 Greenville 3 12.7 New Orleans 4 10.7 Memphis 5 9.3 Atlanta 6 9.2 Nashville 7 8.1 Jacksonville 8 8.0 Columbus 9 6.7 Louisville 10 6.5 Knoxville

Late Game Drama Peaks Audience: As Alabama drove and scored a game-winning touchdown, the game peaked at 6.1 rating (10:15-10:30 p.m.)

ABC/ESPN Set the Pace Among All Networks in the 2017 Season

The strong week 11 overnights continue a season trend of the two networks airing the highest-rated games, as ABC has televised the highest-rated game of the season and two networks have combined to air seven of the top 10 across all networks.

Rank Rating Game Network 1 7.3 Florida State at Alabama ABC 2 6.4 Penn State at Ohio State FOX 3 5.3 Oklahoma at Ohio State ABC 4 5.0 Michigan at Florida ABC 5 4.6 Georgia at Auburn CBS 6 4.5 Notre Dame at Miami ABC 7 4.2 Michigan at Penn State ABC 8 3.9 Michigan State at Michigan ABC 9 3.8 Alabama at Mississippi State ESPN 10 3.7 LSU at Alabama CBS

College GameDay Draws Best Rating of the Season

ESPN’s first-ever College GameDay Built by The Home Depot from the campus of the University of Miami drew a 1.5 overnight, the show’s highest-rating of the season.

*Local ratings go back to 2002; Florida State at Miami in 2014 drew a 16.2 local rating and ranks as the markets best on record

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Media contact: Derek Volner at 860-384-9986; [email protected] and @DerekVolner