NFL continues ratings dominance with big Saturday, CFP first round delivers strong numbers

On By Littum

The NFL continued to prove it’s king with strong showings in the ratings department for its two Saturday afternoon games going up against College Football Playoff competition.

There were 15.4 million viewers for the Baltimore Ravens win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Fox and 15.5 million viewers on NBC for the late afternoon game where the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Houston Texans, according to Sports Media Watch.

Saturday afternoon’s first-round CFP matchups aired on TNT, TBS and truTV, with Texas’ win over Clemson drawing 8.6 million viewers and Penn State knocking off SMU with 6.4 million. The two night games — Ohio State topping Tennessee (14.3 million) and Notre Dame’s rout of Indiana (13.4 million) — each delivered strong numbers without competition from the NFL.

Despite going head-to-head with two NFL games and the results ending in blowouts, the overall CFP numbers were very good. Across the board, the four games averaged 10.6 million viewers, with Tennessee-Ohio State and Indiana-Notre Dame delivering two of the three biggest college football audiences of the season.

Clemson-Texas and SMU-Penn State were the two most-watched college football games televised exclusively on cable this season.