UGA-UT Hits Viewership Low on CBS
ATHENS - Georgia’s game with Tennessee was the lowest-viewed game between the two teams since at least 2011.
3,640,000 tuned in to watch No. 2 Georgia’s 38-12 victory over the Vols, down from 3,950,000 in 2017. It continues a multi-year slide in viewership in the series.
The downward slide in UGA-UT matches the UT-Florida series slip, which has been sliding so much over the years that it wound up off CBS this year (that is the first time that has happened since 2014). To further show how far UT-UF has fallen, UGA-Missouri outdrew the Gators and Vols by 1,220,000 even though it was at noon, and UT-UF was in primetime.
In the previous five years, all UGA-UT games within the top 25 most-viewed games for the Bulldogs. But the 2018 edition of the ball game was so low in viewers that it isn’t in the top 30 of games televised since 2012. In other words, it is a major outlier. Also, it appears Tennessee, for all of its name value through the years, is currently a drag on TV ratings.
The Georgia-Tennessee game was off by more than a million viewers from what it had been averaging the previous five seasons. The game checked in as the No. 3 overall college football game of the weekend behind the Syracuse-Clemson thriller, that was no doubt helped in viewers after the Tigers got in trouble and Trevor Lawerence got hurt, and the Penn State-Ohio State game.
PSU-OSU has been one of the most viewed games of the past half decade. Last weekend’s game, with 9,279,000 viewers, is the most-watched college football game of 2018 so far.
Alabama and Georgia both have three of the top ten televised games in the SEC this fall so far.
Top 10 College Football games so far in 2018
1. 9,279,000 - Ohio State at Penn State - ABC, 8 PM
2. 7,328,000 - Ohio State vs. TCU - ABC, 8 PM
3. 7,091,000 - Michigan at Notre Dame - NBC, 7:30 PM
4. 6,553,000 - Miami vs. LSU - ABC, 7:30 PM
5. 5,936,000 - LSU at Auburn - CBS, 3:30 PM
6. 5,650,000 - Texas A&M at Alabama - CBS, 3:30 PM
7. 5,576,000 - Virginia Tech at Florida State - ESPN, 8 PM
8. 5,253,000 - Washington vs. Auburn - ESPN, 3:30 PM
9. 4,617,000 - Syracuse at Clemson - ABC, Noon
10. 4,540,000 - Louisville vs. Alabama - ABC, 8 PM
Top 10 SEC Football games so far in 2018
1. 6,553,000 - Miami vs. LSU - ABC, 7:30 PM
2. 5,936,000 - LSU at Auburn - CBS, 3:30 PM
3. 5,650,000 - Texas A&M at Alabama - CBS, 3:30 PM
4. 5,253,000 - Washington vs. Auburn - ESPN, 3:30 PM
5. 4,540,000 - Louisville vs. Alabama - ABC, 8 PM
6. 4,486,000 - Clemson at Texas A&M - ESPN, 7 PM
7. 4,109,000 - Alabama at Ole Miss - ESPN, 7 PM
8. 3,747,000 - Georgia at South Carolina - CBS, 3:30 PM
9. 3,640,000 - Tennessee at Georgia - CBS, 3:30 PM
10. 3,328,000 - Georgia at Missouri - ESPN, Noon
Georgia - Tennessee veiwership since 2012
2018 - 3,640,000 - CBS, 3:30
2017 - 3,950,000 - CBS - 3:30
2016 - 4,215,000 - CBS - 3:30
2015 - 4,884,000 - CBS - 3:30
2014 - 4,720,000 - ESPN - Noon
2013 - 5,610,000 - CBS - 3:30
2012 - 4,500,000 - CBS - 3:30