Michigan-Ohio State Draws Biggest Rating In A Decade

Two days after televising the most-watched regular-season game in NFL history, Fox Sports scored again by broadcasting the most-watched college game across any network in a decade.

The Saturday telecast of Michigan’s 45-23 win over Ohio State drew 17 million viewers — good for the most-watched regular-season college game in the network’s history.

That’s more than the 15.4 million viewers for Fox’s telecast of the USA vs. England World Cup soccer match on Black Friday. 

• The Wolverines’ road win over the Buckeyes was the most-watched college football game (excluding bowls and conference championships) on any network since 2011. The numbers were bolstered by Nielsen’s addition of out-of-home ratings in bars and restaurants.

• Viewership peaked at 19.6 million viewers. The telecast was up 3% from last year’s comparable game window.

The impressive performance came after Fox drew a massive 42 million viewers for its Thanksgiving Day telecast of the Dallas Cowboys’ 28-20 win over the New York Giants.

That was the biggest audience for an NFL regular-season game since the “Monday Night Football” clash between Joe Montana’s San Francisco 49ers and Lawrence Taylor’s Giants on Dec. 3, 1990.

Fox could pop another big number Tuesday as the USA faces Iran in Qatar in a must-win match.