David Barron released his first local TV ratings of the year which includes the first two weeks. I’ll track them like I did last year’s.
So, the rating actually isn’t that bad (Barron only gives out the top performing games in Houston, not the entire list). Last year, Houston-Texas State was the highest rated game on ESPNU in the Houston area with a 2.5/89K viewers. This game would have tied for 4th highest last year with Texas A&M-New Mexico State, but behind Texas A&M-UTSA and Houston-UCF. None of those games were late games though.
Going by best performing late games last year, only 1 game rated better than last week’s game: Oregon-Cal which started at 9:30 on ESPN. It rated a 1.7/44K viewers.
Due to Hurricane Irma, national data for ESPNU games was delayed so I didn’t have that info yet.
A&M Nicholls was the lead into our game on the same channel. They got 79K viewers in a better window. We got 56K in the late window.
Now, you might say Nicholls is FCS while we played a Pac 12 team. But the Nichols game was very close, and much better than anyone anticipated. If it was a blowout like it should have been, I don’t know if they get 79K.
I wonder if the games were reversed. If Houston-Arizona was on at 6, and A&M-Nicholls started at 9:30. I have a feeling the Houston game would have had more local viewers than the A&M game. Maybe not 79 vs 56 better, but better.
Pretty good for the time slot & channel. Over 2015, 2016 and now 2017, only one game on ESPNU in the late Saturday time slot did better. Seven did worse. Six did substantially worse (195K or less).
