Red River Rivalry Spurs ESPN To Another Weekly Viewership Victory

A thrilling 34-30 win for Oklahoma in its annual rivalry game with Texas helped spark ESPN to college football’s most-watched game again.

Saturday’s Red River Rivalry averaged 8.1 million viewers between ABC and ESPN2’s “Field Pass with Pat McAfee” alternative telecast — the second-most-watched Oklahoma-Texas game in a full national window on record (behind only 2009) and a 135% increase from 2022’s contest when the Longhorns drubbed the Sooners 49-0. 

ESPN has now had college football’s most-watched game of the week for all but one week this season. It also had the third-most-watched game of the week with the primetime Louisville-Notre Dame contest.

Coming in second place for Week 6 was CBS’ presentation of Alabama’s 26-20 victory over Texas A&M, which registered 7.2 million average viewers in the late afternoon window. It was a 71% increase over the comparable game (Auburn-Georgia) from 2022.

Fox checked in with 4.5 million average viewers for Ohio State’s easy 37-17 win over Maryland, a 12% increase from the same window in Week 6 2022. Even so, “Big Noon Saturday” remains the most-watched college football window on any network, averaging 5.6 million viewers through six weeks. 

Fox’s pregame show, “Big Noon Kickoff” is still trying to catch ESPN’s “College GameDay”: the former averaged 1.4 million viewers, while the latter averaged 2.3 million this week. “GameDay” handily defeated “Kickoff” when the two went head-to-head from Boulder, Colorado in September.

Deion Sanders’ Colorado — a major ratings driver to start the season — was hidden away on Pac-12 Network in Week 6.