The Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies didn’t draw anywhere near as many eyeballs as they did during the regular season a year ago, when the teams played a down-to-the-wire thriller in Seattle.
But the top-ranked Ducks’ lopsided 49-21 victory on Saturday was still one of the most-watched college football games over Thanksgiving weekend.
The rivalry matchup, which aired on NBC, lured an average 2.57 million viewers, according to sportsmediawatch.com. Only eight games drew a larger audience during the final week of the regular season.
Big Ten championship: No. 1 Oregon (12-0) vs. No. 3 Penn State (11-1)
- When: Saturday, Dec. 7
- Time: 5 p.m. PT
- Where: Autzen Stadium, Eugene
- TV channel: CBS
- Stream: You can watch this game live for FREE with Fubo (free trial) or with DirecTV Stream (free trial). If you already have a cable provider, use your login information to watch this game on cbssports.com.
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Michigan’s upset victory over Ohio State was the most-watched game of the week, drawing an average of 12.75 million viewers on FOX, followed by Texas-Texas A&M, which had an average of 9.45 viewers on ABC. The Big Ten Conference had three games among the nine-most watched, as Nebraska-Iowa (3.60 million on NBC) joined Ohio State-Michigan and Oregon-Washington.
It was the sixth-most watched game of the season for the Ducks, who drew an average of at least 2 million viewers in seven of their 10 games tracked by sportsmediawatch.com (see breakdown below).
Last season’s thriller against the Huskies averaged 7.04 million viewers.
Here are the Ducks’ viewership numbers for their first regular season in the Big Ten:
Ohio State: 9.60 million (NBC)
Wisconsin: 4.12 million (NBC)
Michigan State: 2.84 million (FOX)
Oregon State: 2.82 million (FOX)
Illinois: 2.75 million (CBS)
Washington: 2.57 million (NBC)
Purdue: 2.15 million (FOX)
UCLA: 1.5 million (FOX)
Maryland: 817,000 (Big Ten Network)
Idaho: 425,000 (Big Ten)
— Joe Freeman covers the Oregon Ducks. Reach him at 503-294-5183 or @BlazerFreeman. Listen to the Ducks Confidential podcast or subscribe to the Ducks Roundup newsletter.
