or


[01/05/11 - 08:54 AM]
Sugar Bowl: ESPN's Second-Best College Football Overnight Ever
ESPN spins the numbers for Tuesday, January 4.
[via press release from ESPN]

Sugar Bowl: ESPN's Second-Best College Football Overnight Ever

Record College Football Audience for ESPN3.com

The Allstate Sugar Bowl earned an 8.4 overnight rating on ESPN, according to Nielsen, the second-highest overnight rating for college football in ESPN history. The game, a 31-26 Ohio State win over Arkansas, trails only last week's Rose Bowl Game (11.7), and all four BCS telecasts this month are among ESPN's top six college football overnights ever.

The 8.4 overnight rating - which only represents television viewership - is 17% higher than last year's Orange Bowl (Iowa - Georgia Tech, 7.2), played on the equivalent Tuesday night, and three percent lower than last year's Sugar Bowl (8.7, Florida-Cincinnati, played on New Year's night).

On ESPN3.com, the game was watched by more than 248,000 unique viewers for a total of close to 15.8 million minutes consumed, making it the most unique viewers ever for a college football game on ESPN3.com. Thus far, three of the top five college football games based on most unique viewers came from this year's BCS bowl games (Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl).

Across ESPN's digital platforms (ESPN.com, ESPN Mobile Web & ScoreCenter App, and ESPN3.com), January 4 saw 106.7 million total minutes of usage to college football content across, an average of 74,000 users per minute. Highlights for the day include ESPN.com's 14.9 million visits, 34.8 million page views and 69.5 million total minutes, increases of 29 percent, 35 percent and 39 percent, respectively from the same Tuesday in 2010. Additionally, college football content on the ESPN Mobile Web generated 6.1 million visits (up 71 percent), 12.2 million page views (up 54 percent) and 19.8 million total minutes (up 148%).

Season to date, bowl games on ESPN3.com have delivered close to 124 million minutes consumed, up 183 percent vs. last year.

Tuesday's game drew large television audiences in particular markets, led by Columbus (46.2), Dayton (27.6), Birmingham (25.7), Cleveland (25.1), New Orleans (25.0) and Memphis (16.3). There is no metered market in Arkansas. The rating in Columbus is the highest for college football ever on ESPN or ESPN2 in that market (records begin in 2000) and is the highest for any market during the current bowl season..

ESPN & the BCS

ESPN's first year of exclusive coverage of the five BCS matchups will climax with Auburn and Oregon meeting in the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game from Glendale, Ariz., on Monday, Jan. 10. Overall, ESPN, ESPN Radio and ESPN3.com will present all five BCS Bowl games and ESPN 3D is providing exclusive 3D coverage of two BCS contests (Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and Tostitos BCS National Championship Game).

In addition, ESPN is providing extensive on-site studio programming and reports across multiple shows and platforms, dedicated web pages for each bowl, re-airs of classic BCS games, international telecasts of all five games, encore presentations of the National Championship and more.

ESPN's year-round commitment to college football includes more than 400 games, culminating with 33 bowls, and approximately 200 million people tuned in to college football 2010 regular-season coverage on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC.





  [january 2011]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
      


· SHOWATCH
(series past and present)
· DEVWATCH
(series in development)
· MOVIEWATCH
(tv movies and mini-series)




most recent ratings | view all posts
[07/03/25 - 02:33 PM]
ABC News Same-Day Primetime Special "Verdict: The Diddy Trial" Is No. 1 in Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54
Versus the competition in the time period, "Verdict: The Diddy Trial" outperformed NBC by +40% in Adults 18-49 (212,000 vs. 151,000) and +22% in Adults 25-54.
[07/02/25 - 06:44 PM]
Tyler Perry's "Divorced Sistas" Quickly Rises to Become BET+'s Most Watched Original Series in Platform History
Just halfway through the eight-episode season, existing subscribers and new fans of the show have boosted the drama series to the most-watched series premiere on BET+ in just three weeks.
[07/02/25 - 02:38 PM]
Hallmark Channel Earns #1 Most-Watched Network on Weekends Throughout June with "Passport to Love" Programming Event
"Passport to Love" helped elevate Hallmark Channel to be the #1 most-watched network on weekends throughout the month of June.

[07/01/25 - 12:01 PM]
Top 10 Week of June 23: "Squid Game" Season 3 Takes Over with Record-Breaking Global Debut at No. 1
"The Waterfront" was a Top 10 hit once more as the No. 1 series on the English TV list (11.6 million views).

[07/01/25 - 10:26 AM]
ESPN Formula 1 Viewership Notes After Austrian Grand Prix
ESPN's live telecast on Sunday, June 29, averaged 1.1 million viewers, a two percent gain over last year's race and the largest audience ever for the event on U.S. television.
[07/01/25 - 09:16 AM]
ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" Featuring the Minnesota Twins vs. Detroit Tigers Averaged 2 Million Viewers - Up 66% from Last Year's Comparable Game
The audience peaked with 2,304,000 viewers in the 9:15 p.m. ET quarter hour.
[06/27/25 - 02:29 PM]
"Live with Kelly and Mark" Gears Up for Summer Rising Week to Week in All Key Measures
Wednesday, June 11, was the most-viewed day of the week among Total Viewers (2.164 million).
[06/27/25 - 10:31 AM]
"Jimmy Kimmel Live" Tops Late-Night in Adults 18-49 for Third Week in a Row
Winning three of five nights in Kimmel's final week before summer guest hosts, Thursday, June 19, was the show's strongest night among Adults 18-49 (0.35 rating).
[06/25/25 - 11:55 AM]
Prime Video Finishes Groundbreaking First Season of Exclusive NASCAR Coverage
According to Nielsen, NASCAR on Prime posted a season average of 2.16 million viewers (AMA P2+) across five events, and attracted droves of younger viewers to its live coverage.

[06/25/25 - 07:58 AM]
ABC News Primetime Special "Karen Read: The Verdict - A Special Edition of 20/20" Ranks #1 Across All of Broadcast and Cable in Adults 18-49
Plus: "Karen Read: The Verdict" placed No. 1 based on views among all titles on Hulu on Thursday (6/19), Friday (6/20) and Saturday (6/21).
[06/24/25 - 03:03 PM]
ABC News' "Nightline" Ranks No. 1 in All Key Target Demos 18-49 vs. CBS' "After Midnight" and NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers" for 2nd Consecutive Week, and Claims Top Spot in Total Viewers for the 5th Straight Week
On Monday (6/16/25), "Nightline" scored its most-watched telecast (1.112 million) in 5 months.
[06/24/25 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10 Week of June 16: "Tyler Perry's Straw" Leads Top 10 for Third Week, "The Waterfront" Swims to No. 1
Plus: "Ginny & Georgia" Season 3 racked up another 8.1 million views and felt peachy keen at No. 2, while Season 2 landed at No. 8 and Season 1 at No. 10, with an additional 2.7 million views each.
[06/24/25 - 08:42 AM]
Third Most-Watched WNBA Game Ever on ESPN: Indiana Fever vs Las Vegas Aces Averaged 1.7 Million Viewers, Up 52% from Last Year's ESPN Average
Said coverage peaked at 2.2 million viewers.
[06/23/25 - 12:09 PM]
Indiana Pacers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder Game 7 on ABC and ESPN+ Is Most-Watched NBA Finals Game in Six Years
The seven-game series averaged 10,266,000 viewers and delivered the seven most-watched broadcasts on all of television since the first week of May.

[06/18/25 - 09:01 AM]
Murder Mystery May Drives Acorn TV to the Most Successful Month In Its History
Total hours watched surpassed 20 million for the first time in Acorn TV history, with unique engaged subscribers also achieving an all-time high, up double digits from the streamer's average over the past 12 months.