UCF may not be winning much on the football field, but they took care of some business on TV, besting the rival USF on ESPNews this weekend.
In what turned out to be George O’Leary’s last game as UCF’s head coach, UCF’s loss to Houston was the most-watched game on ESPNews on Saturday, almost doubling viewership for USF’s win over SMU.
UCF’s 59-10 loss to No. 21 Houston, which started at noon on ESPNews garnered 171,000 viewers nationally. It was the second most watched UCF game this season nationally behind the UCF-South Carolina game back on Sept. 26 which garnered 380,000 viewers on ESPNU.
South Florida’s win over SMU on Saturday, which kicked off at 4 p.m., in comparison only garnered 86,000 viewers on ESPNews.
The UCF-Houston game was also UCF’s most watched game of the season on ESPNews to this point of the season. The Knights have been on ESPNews three times this season, and are scheduled to be on ESPNews the next two weeks with 12 p.m. start times at Cincinnati this Saturday and at Tulsa on Nov. 7.
UCF has two primetime games to end the season on ESPN with Nov. 19 hosting East Carolina and Thanksgiving night hosting South Florida. Both games should be UCF’s two most viewed games this season.
UCF’s game against Houston in 2013 and 2014 were on primetime on ESPN2, with last season’s game being on a Thursday Night drawing 744,000 viewers. In 2013 on Saturday night, the Knights’ 19-14 win over the Cougars garnered 431,000 viewers which was highlighted by a 4.8 local rating in Orlando which equaled to 72,000 viewers in Orlando.
Here is Breakdown of UCF Games Nationally this season. CBS Sports Network does not make viewership public.
Sept. 3 vs. FIU: N/A (CBS Sports Network)
Sept. 12 at Stanford: 151,000 viewers (Fox Sports 1)
Sept. 19 vs Furman: N/A (ESPN3.com)
Sept. 26 at South Carolina: 380,000 viewers (ESPNU)
Oct. 3 at Tulane: 73,000 viewers (ESPNews)
Oct. 10 vs UConn: 111,000 viewers (ESPNews)
Oct. 17 at Temple: N/A (CBS Sports Network)
Oct. 24 vs Houston: 171,000 viewers (ESPNews)
Florida State -Georgia Tech Most Watched Game on ESPN2 in 2015
Locally Florida State’s dramatic loss at Georgia Tech was the most watched college football game of the week.
Nationally FSU-Georgia Tech garnered 1,943,000 million viewers with a 1.4 overnight rating, which was the highest rated game of the season on ESPN2 according to Sports MediaWatch.com.
Clemson’s 58-0 win over Miami in what would be Miami head coach Al Golden’s last game garnered a 2.0 national rating on ABC.
Here is this week TV Schedule involving Sunshine State teams:
Noon- Syracuse at Florida State (ESPN)
Broadcasters: Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman and Todd McShay
Noon- UCF at Cincinnati (ESPNews)
Broadcasters: Jim Barber and Rene Ingoglia
Noon- USF at Navy (CBS Sports Network)
Broadcasters: John Sadak, Randy Cross and Sheehan Stanwick-Burch
3:30 p.m.- Florida vs Georgia in Jacksonville (CBS)
Broadcasters: Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson and Allie LaForce
7 p.m.- Duke at Miami (ESPNU)
Broadcasters: Allen Bestwick and Dan Hawkins.
