Texas-OU Takes A Beating in TV Ratings

I suppose it could be viewed as a small consolation. The Longhorns 45-40 loss to the Sooners last Saturday was watched by the smallest TV audience in years.

After a long run on network television the contest landed on cable this year. ABC and FOX share the TV contract, and ABC’s selection of Texas Notre Dame to begin the season allowed FOX to pick up the Ohio State-OU and Texas-OU contests in a basic 2-for-1 swap.

Preliminary ratings put the viewing audience for Saturday’s game at approximately 3.2 million viewers. The Tennessee-A&M game on CBS more than doubled that with an estimated 6.5 million.

FOX put it on FS1 in part because of a commitment to the MLB playoffs and as an incentive for viewers to tune into their sports cable network. FOX is still trying to establish FS1 as a viable competitor to ESPN.

They have a long way to go.

Despite being the poorest viewership number for a Texas-OU contest in decades, it is still the largest audience ever for any college football game on FS1.

Dallas reports preliminary ratings that have 320,000 viewers tuning in to Texas-OU with 260,00 watching Tennessee-A&M.