Louisville at Clemson Delivers Monster 6.0 Rating; ABC/ESPN Televise Top 3, Five of Top 6 games of Week 5 Across All Networks
· ACC Showdown is Best Saturday Overnight of the Season, Second Best Overall Across All Networks
· Cardinals-Tigers is a Top 3 Regular Season College Football Game Ever for ESPN Streaming
· Top 10 Throwdowns: Wisconsin at Michigan, Stanford at Washington Results in Strong Audiences
Led by the ABC's Saturday Night Football thriller, -- No. 3 Louisville at No. 5 Clemson (8 p.m. ET), ESPN/ABC's Top 10 Throwdown Week (three in-conference Top 10 matchups) resulted in the networks airing the top three overnights of college football's week 5 and five of the top six across all networks.
The Cardinals-Tigers showdown earned a massive 6.0 overnight and a streaming average minute audience of 200,000 viewers, the highest overnight and most-streamed game of Week 5 across all networks. The down-to-the-end Tigers' victory resulted in a number of superlatives:
· Among 2016 Season Best: 6.0 overnight is the highest overnight for a Saturday college football game of the season and second highest overnight overall, trailing only Notre Dame at Texas (7.0 overnight) from Week 1 (Sunday, Sept. 4). Combined with the Fighting Irish-Longhorns game, ABC has televised the two top overnights of the 2016 season across all networks.
· Up Year Over Year: Saturday Night Football saw a 25% increase in overnight from last season's Notre Dame at Clemson matchup (4.8 overnight), which was the 2015 week 5 Saturday Night Football matchup.
· ABC Prime Time: The Cardinals-Tigers game was the highest overnight for ABC's Saturday Night Football since 2014 ACC Championship game when Florida State defeated Georgia Tech.
· A Top ESPN Streaming Audience: With an average minute audience of 200,000 viewers and 812,000 unique viewers waching a total of 51,100,000 minutes, Louisville-Clemson is a top 3 most-streamed regular season college football game ever for ESPN*. Additionally, the stream is up 200%, 125%, and 219% year over year in average minute audience, unique viewers and total minutes, respectively, over the previously mentioned Notre Dame at Clemson game from last season.
· Local Interests Sets the Pace: The two top markets for last night's game was Louisville (24.9) and Greenville, S.C.(20.1). The top 10 markets were:
Rank Market Local Rating
1 Louisville 24.9
2 Greenville, SC 20.1
3 Columbus, OH 14.4
4 Birmingham 14.0
5 Nashville 11.7
6 Charlotte 11.6
7 Atlanta 11.0
8 Knoxville 10.9
9 Jacksonville 10.7
10 Dayton 10.5
Top 10 Throwdowns: Wisconsin at Michigan, Stanford at Washington Deliver
Saturday afternoon, No. 8 Wisconsin at No. 4 Michigan (3:30 p.m. on ABC) delivered a 4.5 overnight, the second highest overnight of week 5 across all networks. The stream had an average minute audience of 146,000 viewers and a total of 538,000 unique viewers watching 28,419,000 minutes, up 51%, 2%, and 22% respectively year over year (regional action: Ohio State at Indiana and Texas Tech at Baylor). The top five local markets were:
Rank Market Rating
1 Milwaukee 22.1
2 Detroit 21.6
3 Columbus, OH 19.0
4 Dayton 11.1
5 Cleveland-Akron 9.3
A rare, Top 10 Friday night matchup -- Stanford at Washington (9 p.m. ET on ESPN) -- resulted in strong ratings and set an ESPN streaming record. The Pac-12 game delivered a 2.4 overnight rating, the best regular season Friday night game on ESPN since 2012 and the fourth best on record** (non-Thanksgiving weekend). In Seattle, the game generated a 13.2 rating, the market's second highest rating*** for a regular season college football game on ESPN****. Additionally, the game became ESPN's most-streamed regular season Friday night game ever with an average minute audience of 91,000 viewers and a total of 354,000 unique viewers watching 18,200,000 total minutes.
Additional highlights Week 5 Highlights:
· The first game of ABC's triple header Texas at Oklahoma State (noon) delivered a 2.7 overnight, the third highest overnight of week 5 across all networks and up 35% year over year (Texas at TCU).
· North Carolina at Florida State (3:30 p.m. on ESPN) earned an overnight of 1.3, up 63% year over year (Florida State vs. Wake Forest)
*Final streaming numbers will dictate historical placement
**Overnight data exists back to 2001 for ESPN
***No. 1 local rating in Seattle: Washington at Stanford from October 5, 2013 (14.2 rating)
****Local rating data goes back to 2000
Please note: All ESPN Streaming data is preliminary and is to subject to change. Final numbers will be available this week
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