Ratings Roundup: US Open Surges On Despite Hot Weather; College Football Kicks Off on ESPN, ABC By Kristian Hernandez, Assistant Editor Wednesday, September 5, 2018 - 8:15 am
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Ratings roundup is a rundown of rating news from the past week and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, the U.S. Open continues in New York City, the 2018 college football season brought in numbers for ESPN and their family of networks, NBC Sports benefits from a Michigan-Notre Dame opener, the highly-watched 2018 Little League World Series saw Hawaii defeat South Korea in the Championship, the WNBA Playoffs are underway, Monday Night Football kicked off on ESPN, and the Atlanta Braves dominate the local ratings.
Fans Flood Airwaves To Watch U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, NY
After Day 3 at the US Open, tennis' fourth and final Major event of the year, ESPN's overnight ratings - combining ESPN and ESPN2 - are up 20%, from 0.5 to 0.6. This covers 35.5 hours of exclusive live coverage, 2.5 more than the 33 scheduled (8% extra), thanks to late-night, long-running matches. This year's schedule features the US Open's first ever double doubleheaders as there are scheduled night session twin bills on both Arthur Ashe Stadium and the new Louis Armstrong Stadium.
The highest-rated telecast so far was Wednesday night's six-hour, 15-minute marathon featuring Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, and more that lasted until 1:15 a.m. ET. The telecast peaked with a 1.3 rating from 8:30 - 9:15 p.m.
The top 10 metered markets after three days:
West Palm Beach, Fla. 1.3
Columbus, Ohio 1.1
Tampa 1.0
Washington D.C. 1.0
Norfalk, Va. 1.0
New Orleans 0.9
Birmingham, Ala. 0.9
Las Vegas 0.9
New York 0.8
Richmond, Va. 0.8
Top-25 Matchups Highlight Opening Weekend for College Football on ESPN, ABC
ESPN and ABC combined to televise five of the six highest-rated games on any network across college football kickoff weekend (Aug. 30 - Sept. 3), generated significant ratings increases in prime-time specials Monday and Sunday night, and beat the competition head-to-head in nearly every game window. On cable, ESPN aired the three highest-rated games and seven of the top eight, including beating the cable competition in all four game windows where they went head-to-head.
ABC's third annual Sunday night presentation between Miami and LSU (Sept. 2, 7:30 p.m.) delivered a 4.1 overnight, the network's highest-rated game of the weekend. The Tigers' decisive 33-17 victory generated a 41% increase in rating from last year's Sunday night presentation (West Virginia vs. Virginia Tech) on the network.
New Orleans was the highest-rated local market, earning a 25.5, the market's best regular season rating for a game on ESPN/ABC in nearly three years. The following cities rounded out the top 10:
Birmingham 16.9
Columbus- 9.4
Jacksonville 9.2
Miami 8.6
Atlanta 8.1
Memphis 7.9
West Palm Beach 7.8
Knoxville/Oklahoma City 7.5
ESPN's annual Labor Day game between Virginia Tech and Florida State (Sept. 3, 8 p.m.) earned a 3.8 overnight for the traditional telecast on ESPN, tying as cable's highest-rated regular season game since November of 2016. The rating for the Hokies' 24-3 victory was up 15% from the network's Labor Day night game last season which went to overtime (Tennessee-Georgia Tech). The top markets:
Birmingham 12.4
Jacksonville 11.7
Richmond 10.5
Tampa-St. Pete 9.7
Norfolk 8.4
West Palm Beach 7.9
Greensboro-High Point 7.8
Orlando 7.8
Greenville 7.7
Columbus, OH 7.4
Head to head, ESPN/ABC beat the competition in nearly every game window of Kickoff Weekend, including the Saturday late afternoon window (3:30 p.m.) as Washington-Auburn on ABC earned a 3.6 overnight, beating the other broadcast networks by 100% and 350% respectively.
Earlier in the day, ABC and ESPN combined to generate the two highest-rated games of Saturday's noon window, as Oregon State at Ohio State on ABC earned a 2.6 overnight and Ole Miss vs. Texas Tech on ESPN earned a 1.2 overnight. Both windows generated ratings increases year-over-year, with ABC up 63% and ESPN up 9%.
Additional Kickoff Week Highlights:
ESPN beat the cable competition head-to-head on Thursday and Friday by 233% and 80% respectively, as the network aired Northwestern at Purdue (Aug. 30, 8 p.m.) and Western Kentucky at Wisconsin (Aug. 31, 9 p.m.).
College GameDay Built by The Home Depot (Sept. 1, 9 a.m. - noon) started the 25th year of road shows on a high note, delivering a 1.4 overnight, an 8% increase from last season's season premiere.
538 million minutes were spent with ESPN's college football non-game digital content during kickoff week, up 36% from last season
NBC Sports Captures Saturday Slate With Michigan-Notre Dame
NBC Sports' coverage of Saturday night's primetime clash between the No. 12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the No. 14 Michigan Wolverines on NBC dominated the opening Saturday of college football - producing a 4.51 overnight rating which tied the best Notre Dame overnight rating on NBC in 12 years.
The renewal of the iconic Notre Dame-Michigan rivalry at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind., on NBC, which the Fighting Irish won by a score of 24-17, easily won the day across college football. The 4.51 overnight rating for Notre Dame-Michigan was up 51% vs. the 2014 matchup on NBC between the two schools (9/6/14; 2.99), up 60% vs. last year's first primetime game vs. Georgia on NBC (9/9/17; 2.81), and tied the same matchup in 2010 as the best overnight rating for all Notre Dame on NBC broadcasts since Sept. 16, 2006 (Michigan, 4.90).
Locally, Columbus, Ohio, led all markets with a 16.2 rating. Following are the top 10 metered markets from last night
