MichaelSavage Wrote:Put the game in primetime and the rating would have been better. The first BC-VT matchup last season was the highest rated game on Thursday night last season.
I have only seen that fact referenced in an Atlantic Journal Constitution article, where they also mistakenly claim that BC/VT game was the highest ever rated game for Thursday night (coming out of the recent ACC meetings in May). I believe it was the highest ever ACC rated game for Thursday night, not the highest ever on ESPN.
According to TVbytheNumbers, which favors reporting Total Number of Viewers over Rating Points - these were the most watched Thursday night games on ESPN last year.
USC/Ariz. State - 5.1 million viewers
USF/Rutgers - 4.2 million viewers (confirmed 3.39 rating, 3.25 million TVHHs)
VT/BC - 4.0 million viewers
WVU/MD - 3.6 million viewers
The only ESPN2 Friday Night game that made the Top listings:
WVU/USF - 3.3 million viewers
Now viewers aren't rating points as you can see by the confirmed numbers for the USF/Rutgers game, so I think it is quite conceivable that the VT/BC game may have slightly outrated the USF/Rutgers game, depending upon the number of TVHHs each game received to determine ratings points.
As an example, the ND-Penn State game that was on ESPN in September had 4.4 million viewers but rated the exact same 3.39 and 3.25 million households, even though there were supposedly 200k more viewers for that game.
But if the number of viewers reported by TVbytheNumbers is accurate, no way did the VT/BC game outrate the USC/Arizona State game, with over a million more viewers. The Trojans/Sun Devils game would have to have been the highest rated Thursday night game on ESPN last year.
Also, for reference, the 2006 West Virginia/Louisville game had a 5.3 rating with with 4.91 million TVHHs, while the Rutgers/Louisville game had a 5.03 rating with 4.64 million TVHHs.
The 2007 Clemson/FSU Labor Day Night Game was the highest rated ESPN game last year. It rated out at 5.03 with 4.6 million TVHHs and 6.7 million viewers.
The 2006 FSU/Miami Labor Day Night Game was the highest rated ESPN game since the 1994 FSU/Miami game. It received a rating of 6.9 with 6.33 million TVHHs.
Cheers,
Neil