TV ratings: OU-Nebraska rates No. 2
Did you see where Texas Tech-Texas outdrew OU-Nebraska in the Oklahoma City television market Saturday night? The games went head to head, and UT-Tech drew a 21.9 rating on ABC, OU-NU a 21.6 on ESPN.
I don’t know what that means, but it’s interesting. Non-cable games always have an edge on cable games, but still, I’ve never seen an OU game lose out to anything.
There were extenuating circumstances.
1. The UT-Tech game was of utmost importance to every football fan in the state. OU fans, OSU fans, college fans in general.
2. OU-Nebraska was a rout; 21-0 within five minutes, 35-0 after one quarter. Thousands of OU fans no doubt switched channels.
3. UT-Tech was a great finish and lasted longer, so even die-hard Sooners could watch the end. The final 45 minutes of UT-Tech drew a 33.2 rating.
But Saturday was an example of the slightly-changing market. OSU-Iowa State on Saturday afternoon drew a 21.3 on ABC. Again, non-cable telecasts have an advantage, and OSU-ISU wasn’t going against Tech-Texas, but nevertheless that’s an excellent trend for the Cowboys, that they can pull a number almost the equal of the Sooners.
It’s also a sign that viewers might be a little more discriminating than in the past. Maybe the public’s tolerance for blowouts is waning. We can only hope.
One more thing on the TV ratings. The Thunder drew a paltry 0.4 Saturday night for its game at Houston. And you know what? That’s not an awful number. I didn’t know the Thunder could draw that many people against all that college football.
Add that 0.4 rating to OU-Nebraska, and the Sooners would have outdrawn Tech-Texas.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
I watched both games in picture in picture mode, switching the sound back n forth during commercials.
49 points in the first half, who wants to watch the third string play for most of the second half? Seems to be the trend for the Sooners most this season. How many times have they scored 40+ points in the first half? PLus the Tech game was an amazing game, I was screaming more for the raiders than I did for OU! Talk about irony
My friend and I were in the stands at Owen Field with the Slingbox on his phone tuned to the TU-TT television broadcast, while I listened to the Thunder-Rockets game on the radio.
Is this a great state or what?
I watched both games via the remote control recall function but at halftime I switched to the UT/TT game for 90% of the second half. The UT/TT was the better game being played.