College Football on TV: Who Won The Ratings War - Notre Dame or Stanford?
by EG
Notre Dame got its second opportunity of the season to compete for viewers on nation-wide, Saturday-night TV, and unlike on the field, the Fighting Irish emerged victorious in the ratings contest.
The two Saturday-night prime-time games last week were Notre Dame/Clemson on ABC and Arizona/Stanford on Fox. The Notre Dame/Clemson game had play-off implications, as Notre Dame came into the game ranked number 6, and Clemson was ranked number 12 before kick-off. The Arizona/Stanford game had a much lower profile.
The Notre Dame/Clemson game won the night in terms of ratings, drawing 7.2 million total viewers and scoring a 2.4 rating in the 18-49 age demographic. The Arizona/Stanford game, in comparison, attracted only 1.4 million total viewers and earned a .4 ranking in the 18-49 group. Not only did those numbers fall far behind the other game of the night, they were low enough to put the game in last place among the big four broadcast networks.
Unfortunately for Notre Dame, its ratings success was unmatched on the field. The Irish fell to the Tigers in a close game.